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Mark Gerson is an American investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He co-founded the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG) [1] and Thuzio. Gerson is also involved in philanthropic organizations African Mission Healthcare Foundation and United Hatzalah.
Gerson grew up in the Short Hills neighborhood of Millburn, New Jersey and attended Millburn High School. [2] He had his bar mitzvah ceremony at Temple B'nai Jeshurun. [3] Gerson received a BA from Williams College and a JD from Yale Law School. [4]
Gerson and fellow Yale Law School graduate Thomas Lehrman founded the Gerson Lehrman Group in 1998. Gerson Lehrman group, otherwise known as GLG, is a peer to peer business learning company. GLG is a knowledge brokerage and primary research firm with a stated membership-based platform of more than 600,000 independent consultants. [5]
Gerson also co-founded Thuzio, a professional booking marketplace, with former NFL player Tiki Barber, [6] and Create, a venture studio. [7]
Gerson helped found the Tel Aviv Angel Group which invested in early stage Israeli startups and later on Maverick Ventures Israel, a venture capital fund composed of private investors that invests in early growth Israeli startups. Gerson serves on the fund’s board of advisors .
Gerson is the co-founder and chairman of United Hatzalah, a network of volunteer medics in Israel. [8]
Gerson co-founded African Mission Healthcare Foundation with Dr. Jon Fielder in 2010. [9] The Foundation seeks to improve access to medical care in Africa. [10] AMHF supports the work of Christian medical missionaries serving in Africa in three areas: clinical care, training and infrastructure. [11]
AMHF has forged partnerships with Christian Broadcasting Network [12] and Samaritan's Purse [13]
As part of AMHF, Gerson helped create the Gerson L'Chaim Prize [14] in August 2016. [15]
In September 2021 Gerson donated US$18 million to Christian medical missions in Africa. [16]
The L'Chaim Prize for Outstanding Medical Missionary Service was founded by Gerson and his wife Erica Gerson. [17] The L'Chaim Prize is a $500,000 grant aimed to award medical missionaries for their service and help them fund their mission. [17] Due to the rise in independent churches, Gerson believed that there was a shortage of medical missionaries and believed this prize would help the field. [18] The prize's name, L'Chaim, means "to life" in Hebrew. [17]
Year | Applicants | Recipient | Nationality | Country of Service | Intended Use |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2016 | 26 | Jason Fader, MD | American | Burundi (Kibuye Hope Hospital) | Expand hospital and laboratories, purchase orthopedic equipment [19] |
2017 | 24 | Russel E. White, MD | American | Kenya (Tenwek Mission Hospital) | Train cardiac surgeons, implement ultrasound, purchase antibiotics [18] |
2018 | Rick Sacra, MD | American | Liberia (ELWA Hospital) | Train Liberian Family Medicine Physicians, install solar capacity, establish ICUs [20] | |
2019 | Tom Catena, MD | American | Sudan (Mother of Mercy Hospital) | to strengthen and expand the Gidel Mother of Mercy Hospital [21] | |
2020 | Dr. Sister Priscilla Busingye, MD | Ugandan | Uganda (Banyatereza Sisters of Uganda) | She ‘loves the stranger’ every day in a genuine and tangible manner [22] |
On Gerson's podcast The Rabbi's Husband with Mark Gerson he interviews a thinker with religious, political or theological perspectives regarding a passage from the Torah. Guests have included United States Senators Cory Booker, Tom Cotton, William Cassidy, Israeli author Yossi Klein Halevi, speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz and Bishop Robert Stearns. [23] He also hosts a weekly Bible study with Eagles Wings, an international Christian organization supporting Israel initiatives. [24]
He is the author of the national best-selling book The Telling: How Judaism's Essential Book Reveals the Meaning of Life (St. Martins Publishing Group, March 2, 2021) [25] [26] and The Telling Workbook: An Interactive Guide to the Haggadah (St. Martins Publishing Group, March 8, 2022). [27]
Gerson is the author of the books The Neoconservative Vision: From the Cold War to the Culture Wars ( ISBN 1568330545) and In the Classroom: Dispatches from an Inner-City School that Works ( ISBN 0684827565), and the editor of The Essential Neoconservative Reader ( ISBN 0201479680).
He is active politically, with most support going to Republican candidates.[ citation needed ] In 2015, Gerson joined other Republicans in signing an amicus curiae brief supporting a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, which was submitted to the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges. [28]
Gerson is a fan of Elvis Presley and his friend appeared at his wedding as an Elvis impersonator. [3]
The Passover Seder is a ritual feast at the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover. It is conducted throughout the world on the eve of the 15th day of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar. The day falls in late March or in April of the Gregorian calendar; Passover lasts for seven days in Israel and eight days outside Israel. Jews traditionally observe one seder if in Israel and two if in the Jewish diaspora. The Seder is a ritual involving a retelling of the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt, taken from the Book of Exodus (Shemot) in the Torah. The Seder itself is based on the Biblical verse commanding Jews to retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt: "You shall tell your child on that day, saying, 'It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'" At the seder, Jews read the text of the Haggadah, an ancient Tannaitic work. The Haggadah contains the narrative of the Israelite exodus from Egypt, special blessings and rituals, Talmudic commentaries, and Passover songs.
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.
A number of religious groups, particularly Christians and Muslims, are involved in proselytization of Jews: Attempts to recruit or "missionize" Jews. In response, some Jewish groups have formed counter-missionary organizations to discourage missionary and messianic groups such as Jews for Jesus from using practices that they say are deceptive.
Established in 1895, Africa Inland Mission (AIM) is a Christian mission sending agency focused on Africa. Their stated mission is to see "Christ-centered churches established among all African peoples." AIM established the Kapsowar Hospital in 1933.
Hatzalah is one of several Jewish volunteer emergency medical service (EMS) organizations serving mostly areas with Jewish communities around the world, giving free medical service no matter their religion. Most local branches operate independently of each other, but use the common name. The Hebrew spelling of the name is always the same, but there are many variations in transliteration, such as Hatzolah, Hatzoloh, and Hatzola. It is also often called Chevra Hatzalah, which loosely translates as "Company of Rescuers", "Group of Rescuers", or "Rescue Squad". It is the largest volunteer medical group in the United States.
Bernard "Bernie" Marcus is an American billionaire businessman. He co-founded The Home Depot, was the company's first CEO, and its first chairman, until retiring in 2002.
Jacob Shmuel Boteach, commonly known as Shmuley Boteach, is an American rabbi, author, and television host. He is the author of 31 books, including the best-seller Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy (1999) and Kosher Jesus (2012). For two seasons, he hosted the prime-time reality television series Shalom in the Home, which was one of the highest-rated shows on TLC. His outspokenness has earned him both praise and criticism; he has been described as one of the most influential Jews in the United States and the world.
Dayenu is a song that is part of the Jewish holiday of Passover. The word "dayenu" means approximately "it would have been enough", "it would have been sufficient", or "it would have sufficed". This traditional up-beat Passover song is over one thousand years old. The earliest full text of the song occurs in the first medieval haggadah, which is part of the ninth-century Seder Rav Amram. The song is about being grateful to God for all of the gifts given to the Jewish people, such as taking them out of slavery, giving them the Torah and Shabbat, and had God only given one of the gifts, it would have still been enough. This is to show much greater appreciation for all of them as a whole. The song appears in the haggadah after the telling of the story of the exodus and just before the explanation of Passover, matzah, and the maror.
Christianity is the predominant religion in Zambia and is recognised as the state religion by the country's constitution. Before the arrival of European missionaries, the various ethnic groups residing in the territory of modern day Zambia practiced a variety of African traditional religions.
Yemen is an Islamic society. Nearly all Yemenis are Muslims, with approximately 55% belonging to the Shia Islam and approximately 44% belonging to the Sunni Islam. Amongst the native population, there were approximately 1,000 Christians, and 6 remaining Jews in 2016. However, Pew-Templeton estimates the number of Christians to be as high as 40,000, though most do not publicly identify as such, due to fears of religious persecution. According to WIN/Gallup International polls, Yemen has the most religious population among Arab countries and it is one of the most religious populations world-wide.
Christianity is the largest religion in Botswana. However, the country is officially secular and allows freedom of religious practice.
The Church's Ministry Among Jewish People (CMJ) is an Anglican missionary society founded in 1809.
GLG is a financial and global information services company headquartered in New York City. The company provides financial information and advises investors and consultants with business clients seeking expert advice. It is the world's largest expert network, with over 1,000,000 freelance consultants. GLG's experts include asset managers, investors, consultants, physicians, scientists, engineers, lawyers, senior current and former c-level executives, and former government members. GLG's clients include strategy consulting corporations, hedge funds, private equity firms, professional service firms, and non-profit organizations.
Eli Beer is the founder of United Hatzalah of Israel, and President of the U.S.-based organization Friends of United Hatzalah. United Hatzalah of Israel is an independent, non-profit, fully-volunteer emergency medical services organization that provides fast and free emergency medical first response throughout Israel.
United Hatzalah is an Israeli free, volunteer-based emergency medical services (EMS) organization throughout Israel with its headquarters based in Jerusalem. Its mission is to provide immediate medical intervention during the critical window between the onset of an emergency and the arrival of traditional ambulance assistance. It is one of many Hatzalah organizations in various parts of the world and the only one that includes women and non-Jewish volunteers.
Thomas Gerard Catena is an American physician who has been practising in Gidel in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan since 2008. On May 28, 2017, he was awarded the second annual Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, receiving a $100,000 grant and an additional one million dollars for him to distribute to three humanitarian organizations. He has been likened to the 20th-century medical missionary Albert Schweitzer. The New York Times has published instructions on how to donate to Catena. In 2018, Dr. Catena was appointed Chair of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.
The White House Passover Seder was an annual private dinner held at the White House on the Jewish holiday of Passover during the presidency of Barack Obama. Obama initiated it in 2009 for his family, staff members, friends, and their families. The gathering recited the Passover Haggadah, discussed the themes of the Passover Seder and their relation to current events, and partook of a holiday-themed meal. Obama hosted and attended the Seder each year from 2009 to 2016. It was the first Passover Seder to be conducted by a sitting U.S. president in the White House.
Jason Fader is an American medical missionary who serves in the nation of Burundi. In 2016, Fader was the inaugural winner of the L’Chaim Prize for Outstanding Christian Medical Missionary Service. Fader has worked in Kenya. He currently serves as the assistant medical director for Kibuye Hope Hospital. With the 2016 L'Chaim Prize, Fader intends to build a new ward in the hospital, expand its current laboratories, and buy orthopedic equipment.
The Oxford University L'Chaim Society was a student society at the University of Oxford from 1989 to 2001. At its peak, it was the second-largest society within the University of Oxford.