Dr.
Mona Ackerman (right) with
Revital Pinkas and Pinkas’ mother. |
Dr.
Yashar Hirshaut (right) with
Amy Langer and Dr. Peter Pressman |
Dr.
Julie Mitnick (from left),
Dr. Orna Hadar and Dr. Deborah Axelrod. |
Dr.
Kenneth Offit (left) with
Emily Sonnenblick and ICRF executive
vice president Donald Adelman. |
Dr. Yashar Hirshaut and ICRF vice
president Dr. Alfred
Rosenbaum.
|
ISRAEL CANCER RESEARCH FUND
Experts Gather at
Mona Ackerman’s
Story and Photos by Tim Boxer
 R. YASHAR HIRSHAUT, president
of Israel Cancer Research Fund, gathered a highly talented panel of
doctors and researchers for the organization’s fourth annual
Evening of Breast Cancer Awareness. Dr. Mona
Ackerman welcomed the distinguished guests
and members of the ICRF
Rachel’s Society to her plush Fifth Avenue salon.
Revital Pinkas, wife of Israeli Consul
General Alon Pinkas and Rachel’s Society honorary
chairperson, apologized for her accent. She said her four-year-old
daughter told her, “Mommy, I would appreciate it if you wouldn’t
speak in front of my friends.”
Hirshaut enlivened the program with a story
about a meeting President George W. Bush had with Osama
bin Laden.
“I had a dream,” the terrorist chieftain
said. “I came to New York and all the signs said ‘Welcome bin
Laden.’”
“I too had a dream,” the president said.
“It’s several years later, and every city in Afghanistan was
rebuilt. There were big signs everywhere.”
“What did they say?”
“I don’t know. I don’t read Hebrew.”
After the chuckles, the room got serious with
discussion of breast cancer. “One of eight women will develop
breast cancer if they live to 80,” said Dr. Julie S. Mitnick,
panel moderator. She’s founder of Murray Hill Radiology and
Mammography.
People feel very strong about taking
mammograms, as well they should. Dr. Mitnick said one woman called
her on Sept. 11 to confirm her appointment later that day.
“Haven’t you heard what happened today?”
a surprised Mitnick asked.
But the woman was insistent: “I made this
appointment a month ago and I’m coming in.”
The panel included Dr. Deborah Axelrod;
Dr. Kenneth Offit, chief of clinical genetics at Memorial
Sloan Kettering; Dr. Peter Pressman; Dr. Stefanie Zalasin,
and Amy Langer, executive director of the National
Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations.
|
