Alan B. Kane is a business executive with interdisciplinary experience in pharmaceutical marketing, broadcast regulation and microbiological research. He is the founder and former CEO of Lark Marketing Support Services; a provider of specialized regulatory compliance software systems, marketing and FDA/DEA licensed distribution services for the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to the founding of Lark, he served as Managing Science Editor for the Code Authority of the National Association of Broadcasters. In that capacity, he administered Code approval of all radio and television broadcast advertising related to medical, health, and nutrition products and services. Before joining the NAB, Alan was a research virologist with the Waksman Institute of Microbiology at Rutgers University. Alan is currently involved with the Development Corporation for Israel/State of Israel Bonds, the Israel Taskforce of his local Jewish Federation, and chairs his synagogue's Israeli student exchange program. He is an active member of Congregation B'nai Tikvah and has held numerous executive board and trustee positions over a fourteen year period. Alan and his wife Arline have two daughters and live in North Brunswick, New Jersey.

Eugene M. Grant, president of the Eugene M. Grant & Co., a real estate investment and development firm headquartered in New York, is past general chairman of the New York UJA/Federation campaign. He is a life trustee of the Jewish Museum as well as chairman of the Westchester Holocaust Commission, a member of the National Cabinet of the State of Israel Bonds, a board member of the American Israel Chamber of Commerce, a trustee of the NY UJA/Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, the Israel Children's Centers and the American Jewish Committee. He is also a director of the Metropolitan Opera Association, a trustee of the Richard Tucker Foundation, and a member of the Real Estate Council of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Carnegie Hall. In his professional life, he is treasurer of the Realty Foundation of New York, a trustee of the Real Estate Institute of New York University, and a former governor of the Real Estate Board of New York. Gene graduated from the University of Michigan and Columbia Law School and is a member of the New York Bar Association. He served with a fighter group of the US Air Force in Europe, ending his tour as a Major. He resides in Mamaroneck, New York with his wife Emily, who is president of the Emelin Theater and is a chairperson of the Purchase College Foundation. The Grants have three daughters: Terry, who resides in Virginia, Andrea and Carolyn in Boulder, Colorado.

Terrence A. Elkes, of blessed memory, was a Managing Director and co-owner of Apollo Partners, Ltd., which is involved in investing in media, communications, entertainment, cable and broadcasting companies. Terry had a 15 year relationship with Viacom International Inc., where he served as a member of the Board of Directors, President and Chief Executive Officer. He received his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from the City College of New York and earned his Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Michigan. He maintained an active association with the University as a member of the President’s Advisory Committee and the Investment Advisory Board. Terry was deeply committed to preserving Jewish culture and values and believed that “JOI’s mission is a crucial element in ensuring the perpetuation of Judaism in future generations.” Terry and his late wife Ruth are survived by three sons and seven grandchildren.

David G. Sacks, of blessed memory, was director and past president of the Seagram Co. as well as past president of UJA/Federation of New York, and Vice President of CJF. A native New Yorker, David and his wife, Marcella Rosen, were both devoted members of the JOI Board and David served as Chair. In a recent Sh'ma, a journal of Jewish responsibility, David observed “while some intermarrieds are committed to break with the Jewish community, most express their desire for a continuing sense of connectedness to Judaism and its traditions in a variety of ways. According to the 1990 National Population Survey, about 28% of the children of intermarrieds are raised as Jews. One of our goals ought to be to raise that percentage to something over 50%.”



David Belin, of blessed memory, was the founding president of the Jewish Outreach Institute. He was honorary Vice-Chairman of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and served as chairman of its Outreach Program from its inception in 1978 until 1988. He also served in leadership capacities in other Jewish organizations including membership on the Executive Committee of the Jewish Foundation of Christian Rescuers (ADL), a national organization which emphasizes the teaching of moral values and which helps support Christians who, at the risk of their own lives, helped shelter Jews in Nazi-occupied lands in Europe during the time of the Holocaust. In addition, he had a broad range of public service including appointment by Chief Justice Earl Warren as counsel to the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (Warren Commission), appointment by President Ford as Executive Director of the Commission on CIA Activities within the United States (Rockefeller Commission), and membership on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. He was the author of a number of books, including Final Disclosure: The Full Truth About the Assassination of President Kennedy and Leaving Money Wisely.



Egon Mayer, of blessed memory, was Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies of the Graduate School of the City University of New York. He was also Founding Director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, a non-profit organization committed to helping interfaith families integrate within the Jewish community. Dr. Mayer was a widely sought-after lecturer and author of major studies in Jewish intermarriage, including: Intermarriage and the Jewish Future (1979), Children of Intermarriage (1983), Conversion of the Intermarried (1987), and Rabbinic Officiation and Intermarriage. His widely acclaimed book, Love & Tradition: Marriage between Jews & Christians, was published by Plenum Publishing Co. in 1987. Dr. Mayer was also author of a book on the Orthodox and Hasidic communities of Boro Park, From Suburb to Shtetl, published by Temple University Press. Born in Switzerland and raised in Budapest, Hungary, Egon Mayer immigrated with his family to the United States during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. He received his B.A. from Brooklyn College in 1967, his M.A. from the New School for Social Research in 1970 and his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1975. Dr. Mayer lived in Laurel Hollow, New York, with his wife and children.

Dottie Bennett is chair of Project Interchange, an Institute of the American Jewish Committee which sends influential non-Jews to Israel for educational purposes. She is also immediate past chair, National Council, The American Jewish Committee, a member of AJC’s National Board of Governors, AJC’s Executive Committee and past president of the AJC Washington Chapter. She has also been AJC’s national chair, Inter religious Affairs. She also serves on the AJC Centennial Endowment Committee. Dottie is also involved with AIPAC. She is a 2004 Presidential appointee to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council where she chaired the Collections and Artifacts Committee and now chairs the Education Committee. She also serves on the Executive Committee. She serves on the Board of the United Jewish Endowment Fund and its grants committee where she works on major gifts and endowments. She is also a member of the Jewish Funders Network. She also is a Board member of the Harold Rosenthal Fellowship in International Relations. Previously she served as Vice President for Multiple Appeals of the United Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. She works with Planning and Allocations and serves as co-chair of Outreach and Engagement. She also co-chairs the building campaign for Gesher Jewish Day School. She is a member of Congregation Agudas Achim and Temple Rodef Shalom. She has served on the Board of Directors of International Country Club. Previously she served on the boards of the Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, the Darrell Friedman Institute and the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. She is a 2003 recipient of the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. She taught school for more than 20 years and is deeply involved in the issues of Jewish education and in efforts to maintain and enhance Jewish identity. Her pride and joy are her daughter Ann, son-in-law Bob and her three grandchildren, Zachary, Arielle and Jared.


Jacob Berman has over 25 years experience as an international business executive. His innovative and creative approach to business has allowed him to launch start-up ventures and turn around ailing businesses in the U.S. and the developing world. Jake competed successfully in territories controlled by multinationals, and has vast experience in domestic and international market development, customer service, and customer relations. He is an experienced call center professional who founded PIASI (Philippines International Audiotext Services, Inc.) in 1994, the first outsource call center in the Philippines. Jake was born in Israel and has lived in many countries, as well as many American cities. He graduated with honors from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird campus) in Phoenix, Arizona. Jake and his wife and children live in Old Greenwich, CT.


Todd L. Blue is responsible for the business development and strategic direction of Cobalt Ventures, LLC. He is responsible for partnership and brand development as well as leading the development, management and leasing of Cobalt's real estate portfolio. Mr Blue co-founded Cobalt Venture in 1998, after most of the assets of the The Blue Industrial Group were divested. In late 1999, he led Cobalt's transformation to become an active operating business. Formerly, Mr. Blue was Vice President for Progress Rail Services Corporation, a subsidiary of Florida Progress Corporation (NYSE). In this role he represented Progress Rail in its expansion into the foundry market in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and steel mills nationwide. From 1994 to 1998, Todd was responsible for commercial activities at Louisville Scrap Material Company, where he served as Vice President. While there, he oversaw all steel, and metals trading, as well as brokerage, industrial account purchasing, and shipping. From 1992 to 1994, Todd Blue was an Executive in Chicago with Luria Brothers, a Division of Connell Limited Partnership. His responsibilities included steel scrap brokerage to steel mills and foundries. Mr. Blue earned his degree in International Business from the George Washington University in Washington DC in 1992.


Laura Samberg Faino is Co-director of the Samberg Family Foundation, which concentrates its grantmaking in the following programmatic areas: Jewish issues; education and youth development; health; and housing and community development. Much of the Foundation's giving is in the New York metro area. Its offices are in Washington, DC. Laura has been on the professional staff of the Foundation since May 2001. Prior to that, she was a Project Manager at R.O.W. Sciences, a health services research firm. Laura's policy and advocacy experience also includes positions at the American Council on Education's Clearinghouse on Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Disabilities, and the Institute for Educational Leadership's Coalition for Community Schools. Laura holds a BA in History from Cornell University and a MA in Education from Stanford University. She and her husband Michael Faino reside in Arlington, VA.

Jane Gellman is immediate past president of the Milwaukee Jewish Community Center. Active in the national JCC movement, she is currently on the executive committee of the Jewish Community Center Association. Jane is also on the boards of the UW-Milwaukee and Madison Hillels; a member of the executive committee of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and co-chair of the Alliance for Educational Programs in Israel. She is very involved in Partnership 2000 where she holds the position of cluster chair of the Sovev-Kinneret region. She is on the board of Visitors in Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jane has two children (Sarah is 24 and is living in Portland, OR and currently looking for a new job in outdoor education; Sam is almost 21, and about to start his junior year at Stanford). Trained in physical education (M.A., Ohio State; B.A., University of Wisconsin), Jane recently became certified as a personal trainer.

Jerry Hamovit, a graduate of Rice University and Harvard Law School, is a retired Attorney, who practiced primarily in Washington, D. C, and a member of the D.C., Ohio and Texas Bars. Since his retirement, he serves as the mediator for Florida’s 12 th Judicial Circuit and the officer and director of Pierian Spring Academy in Sarasota Florida. Earlier in his career, Jerry served as the vice-president and director of the Greater Washington Jewish Community Center.

Donald Landis was born in New York City and is a graduate from Phillips Academy (Andover). He later attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He served as a 1st Lieutenant in the USAF 1954-1957. Don is a member of the New York and New Jersey bars; and served in two firms: Pitney, Hardin, Kipp and Szuch (then Pitney, Hardin and Ward), and as a partner (and later of counsel) in Wolf, Haldenstein, Adler, Freeman & Herz, Esqs.. Following a career in the law, he entered commercial financing and factoring with United Credit Corporation where he was chairman of the board before selling the business and retiring. Presently Don serves as a board member of American Friends of the Open University of Israel; American Friends of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art; Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs; Performing Arts Center of Purchase College; Reconstructionist Rabbinical College; Westchester Chapter of American Jewish Committee; Westchester Jewish Community Services and Westchester Jewish Conference. He is also past president of Bet Am Shalom Synagogue (White Plains); United Way of White Plains; Westchester Chapter of American Jewish Committee and Westchester Jewish conference; past vice president or associate chair of CLAL, HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society); Jewish Reconstructions Federation and Westchester Jewish Community Services. Don has been a member of many committees of UJA/Federation and is presently on its commission on Jewish peoplehood and its Westchester Human Services. Don married Betsy Miller in 1958. They have three children and two grandchildren.

Saul Mintz, a graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, and while he is a non-practicing licensed architect, he currently is the Chairman of Strauss Interests and various business operations. Saul serves on the boards of Tulane University President's Council, LSU Health Sciences Foundation-Shreveport, as well as the Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Saul is the recipient of the: ADL Torch of Liberty Award/South Central Region, Tulane University Emeritus Club’s Outstanding Alumnus Award, and the Jewish Endowment Foundation’s Tzedakah Award.

Morris W. Offit is CEO of Offit Hall Capital Management LLC, a wealth management advisory firm in New York and San Francisco. He previously was founder and CEO of OFFITBANK, a wealth management private bank, which merged into Wachovia Bank in 1999. Mr. Offit began his career in 1960 at Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Company in Baltimore in investment research. He joined Salomon Brothers in 1968 and for then years was a General Partner, establishing the Stock Research Department with subsequent responsibility for world-wide fixed income and equity sales. Mr. Offit received a BA from Johns Hopkins University (1957) and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1960). He was the recipient of an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from John Hopkins University in 1996. In 1983, he served as adjunct professor of Finance at the Columbia Graduate School of Business, lecturing on the secondary capital markets. He has lectured widely at investment seminars and graduate school of business and international affairs. He has recently served as a panelist on the role of the dissenting director at the Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. As one of the country's first designated Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA), he served as the first chairman of the Professional Ethics Committee for the Financial Analysts Federation. Mr. Offit's primary outside affiliations include serving as a Trustee of The Johns Hopkins University where he served as chairman of the board (1990-1996). For Johns Hopkins University he currently chairs the advisory committee for the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (Washington, DC). He is also a trustee of the Jewish Museum where he served as chairman of the board (1987-1991) and in May 2001, he was elected chairman of the UJA Federation of New York.

Dr. Michael Rappeport is the founding partner of R.L. Associates, a survey research and consulting firm in Princeton, New Jersey. He has worked in market and survey research areas for more than 30 years. As part of his work, he has made more than 80 appearances as an xpert witness in legal cases at trial and/or through deposition. His testimony has dealt with statistics and statistical analysis, marketing and public opinion cases in such disparate areas as trademark infringement, libel, damages for failure to fulfill a contract, and reapportionment. He has also testified as an expert in a number of quasi-legal proceedings before a range of public boards, agencies, and regulatory bodies. He serves on the boards of Panim and the National Havurah Committee. Michael also serves on editorial board of The Trademark Reporter.

Keith Rosenbloom is a director of Commonwealth Associates, AutoAmerica, Inc. and Dating, Inc. He is a director-elect of the Ben and Esther Rosenbloom Foundation. Keith is the Director of Merchant banking and a Managing Director of the Corporate Finance Department at Commonwealth Associates. Mr. Rosenbloom worked with Prudential Capital Corporation, the merchant banking arm of the Prudential Investment (PIC). Keith graduated cum laude from Yale University.

Dr. Norton Rosensweig, a licensed Physician in New York State, graduated Cum Laude from Princeton University and New York University School of Medicine. He currently serves as the director of the Program in Functional GI Disease and Esophageal Function Laboratory at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York. Norton has also served as a captain and major in the Medical Corps in the U.S. Army. He is the recipient of the U.S. Army Commendation Medal and the U.S. Army Science Conference Award and is a New York State Regents Scholar in Medicine.

Mitchell H. Shames is Chief Counsel and Senior Principal of State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the investment management group of State Street Bank & Trust Company. He received an A.B., with honors, from the University of Chicago in 1979, a J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1983 and an LL.M. in taxation from New York University in 1984. Mitchell formerly was president of the Hillel Council of Greater Boston and also served on the Young Leadership Cabinet of United Jewish Appeal. In 1994 he was awarded the Young Leadership Award by the Boston Federation. Currently he is on the board of directors and is a member of the executive committee of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston. Mitchell and his ife Jane are members of Temple Israel of Boston where Mitchell also serves as a trustee. They live in Newton, MA with their two sons, Will and Nate.

Jerry Bedingfield Tilles was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, grew up in Washington DC, and considers herself the product of an interfaith marriage (Catholic and Baptist). Like most children of interfaith families, she decided to investigate other religions rather than show favoritism to one parent. Jerry converted to Judaism in 1972 through the Conservative movement at Adas Israel Congregation in Washington DC; was introduced to Reform Judaism in 1984 at Temple Beth El of Great Neck, NY, where she immediately became, and continues to be, a member of the Women of Reform Judaism. Some of the other Temple Beth El activities included chairing the Outreach Committee, chairing a committee on the Role of the Non-Jew in the Synagogue and being a board member. Jerry has chaired local and regional Outreach Committees for the New York Federation of Reform Synagogues and has served on the National Executive Outreach Board of the Union for Reform Judaism (now URJ). Jerry chaperoned the first trip to Israel of Jewish and Catholic high school children with Project Understanding and participated in the first Vatican commemoration of the Holocaust under the auspices of Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1994. Jerry has been involved with the Jewish Outreach Institute for over 10 years, and is currently the Secretary for the Board of Directors. Jerry and Roger Tilles make their home with the youngest two of three children in Great Neck, NY.

Roger Tilles graduated in 1968 from Amherst College with a bachelor of arts degree and from the University of Michigan College of Law in 1971. He became Director of Law and Legislation for the Michigan Department of Education, and, in 1975, he was the Executive Secretary to the Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives and opened his own law practice in Washington D.C. in 1978, until his return to Long Island in 1983 where he is a director of the Tilles Investment Company. He is the president and a founding member of the Association for a Better Long Island, serves on the executive committee of Long Island University and Union of American Hebrew Congregations, serves on the board of the Long Island Philharmonic and is the executive vice Chairman of the Tilles Center of the Performing Arts and is currently chairman of the Board of Long Island University. He grew up at Temple Beth-El and was president of the Junior Temple Club in 1962. He has served as chair of the social action committee; building and grounds committee; and the development committee, as well as vice president. He was president of Temple Beth-El from 1991 to 1996. He is also involved with significant interfaith activities; two of the most valuable being Project Understanding, which he formed with Monsignor Tom Hartman in 1987, bringing Catholic and Jewish teenagers together on a mission to Israel; and as the producer of the first Vatican commemoration of the holocaust under the auspices of Pope John Paul II in Rome in 1994.