Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation Names Co-Chairs
The Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation has named Jake Reiter and Matt Pestronk co-chairs of the organization’s board of directors.
Former chair David Adelman will remain a PHRF board member and part of the executive committee.
Pestronk, president of Post Brothers Apartments, and Reiter, president of Verde Capital Corp., have each served on the executive board for five years.
The organization also named five new board members. They are Matthew J. Meltzer, an associate at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP; Tony Payton, a partner at government relations firm David Scott Partners and a former member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives; David Waxman, the co-founder and managing partner of real estate development firm MMPartners; Justin Wineburgh, president and CEO of creative studio Alkemy X; and Jonathan S. Krause, the co-chair of the litigation department at Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg.
The PHRF said in a news release that it will launch new programs designed to provide enhanced Holocaust education. It also is developing curricula and teacher trainings about the common ground between racism and anti-Semitism.
The flagship program of the organization, which is a nonprofit that educates the public about the Holocaust, was the expansion of the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza in Center City.
Nemours duPont Hospital for Children Opens Kosher Pantry
Nemours duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware, opened a new kosher pantry in January to make meal preparation and storage convenient for Jewish families keeping kosher.
The pantry, which is available at all times, has a full-sized refrigerator, a microwave, cabinets for storage and space for meal preparation and clean-up.
“By being culturally aware and recognizing the importance of having kosher food readily available and the space with which to prepare it, we can enhance the patient experience while understanding we all want the same thing, the very best for the children entrusted to our care,” said Cindy Bo, senior vice president of Delaware Valley strategy and business development at Nemours Children’s Health System.
Real Estate Developer Albert M. Greenfield III Dies at 65
Real estate developer and corporate bond trader Albert M. Greenfield III, whose grandfather and father were major Philadelphia-area real estate financiers, died Feb. 7 from Alzheimer’s disease complications, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Greenfield acquired his grandfather’s company and renamed it Albert M. Greenfield & Company, Inc. in 1990. He was known for promoting Chestnut Street as a commercial zone that was pedestrian friendly and played a key role in renovating properties in Center City and Manayunk, among other areas.
Aside from serving on the board of the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation, he was involved in the development of Dilworth Park and the Arden Children’s Theatre.
Earlier in his career, he worked as an investment banker and a corporate bond trader.
Greenfield’s grandfather was known as “Mr. Philadelphia” for his involvement in development, politics and civic affairs. Those included the 1944 acquisition of the financially troubled Jewish Exponent, which he turned over to the Allied Jewish Appeal, the precursor to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
Greenfield is survived by his wife, Wendy; three sons, Aaron, Matthew and Jason; four grandchildren; and two sisters.
Philanthropist Shirley Shils Dies at 100
Philanthropist Shirley Shils died Feb. 1 at her Penn Valley home. She was 100.
Shils and her late husband, Dr. Edward B. Shils, were involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors.
Shils served on the board and executive committee of the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life, as vice president of the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia, and as chair of the Women’s Division of Philadelphia Allied Jewish Appeal’s Israeli Emergency Fund.
The couple endowed the Edward B. Shils and Shirley R. Shils Term Professorship in Entrepreneurial Management at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001. Earlier, they endowed the Edward B. and Shirley R. Shils Term Professorship in Arbitration and Alternative Dispute Resolution at Penn’s Carey Law School.
Penn Dental Medicine named the school’s state of the art clinic after Edward and Shirley Shils in 2017.
Shils is survived by children Ronnie Burak, Nancy Shils and Edward Barry Shils, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
University of Pennsylvania Doctor Wins Israeli Dan David Prize
University of Pennsylvania cancer cell therapy pioneer Dr. Carl June was named a 2021 Dan David Prize laureate.
The Dan David Prize is endowed by the Dan David Foundation at Tel Aviv University, which annually awards three $1 million prizes.
June is the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at Penn and director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center.
He was recognized in the “future” category for his contributions to molecular medicine, including his work in developing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, which in August 2017 was the first Food and Drug Administration-approved personalized cellular therapy for cancer.
June will share the $1 million prize with Dr. Steven Rosenberg, chief of the surgery branch at the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute, and Dr. Zelig Eshhar, an immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center.
The Dan David Prize is endowed by the Dan David Foundation at Tel Aviv University, which annually awards three $1 million prizes. l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
