Jay Feinberg

Jay Feinberg
Lh.D, hc
Born Nyack, New York
Alma mater Dickinson College
Occupation Bone Marrow Registry Founder and CEO
Board member of Gift of Life Marrow Registry

Jay Feinberg (b. August 1968 in New York City) is a long-term leukemia survivor, community organizer and founder and current CEO of the Gift of Life Marrow Registry.

Leukemia, and search for a donor

Feinberg was a 22-year-old foreign-exchange analyst for the Federal Reserve in New York in 1991, just starting law school when he was diagnosed with leukemia and told that a bone marrow transplant was his only hope. A matching donor was not found in Feinberg’s immediate family. Knowing that tissue type is influenced by one’s ethnic background - inherited like eye color, his friends and relatives widened their search to the unrelated population, focusing on increasing the representation of Ashkenazi Jews.

Feinberg's plight, along with that of Mario Cooper, a graphic design artist, and Erskine Henderson, an attorney at Skadden Arps, was featured in a 1991 New York Times article.[1] Massive screenings were organized in Jewish communities throughout North America and Israel. In addition, screenings were held in Belarus (by Arnie Draiman and Bill Begal), Australia and South Africa.[2]

By 1995, more than 55,000 people had been tested. Feinberg’s condition was rapidly deteriorating and only a partial match had been found. A friend in Milwaukee organized one last drive and teenager Becky Faibisoff was found to be a match. Feinberg received his successful transplant at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA.

The Gift of Life Marrow Registry

Feinberg’s experience led him to devote his life to building a movement to educate and encourage people to add themselves to bone marrow registries around the world and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of donor Registry operations and strategy. The Gift of Life Marrow Registry, the Florida-based organization of which he is founder and CEO, seeks to increase the number of registered Jews in particular, many of whom lack extended family because of the Holocaust. Feinberg has subsequently used his recruitment model to help other under-represented ethnic groups increase their representation in the registry. According to statistics found at www.wmda.info, Gift of Life is among the larger registries in the world.

Awards

  • In 2004, Feinberg was awarded the Charles Bronfman Prize for his dedication to the fight against leukemia and his service to the Jewish community.
  • In 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Yeshiva University,[3] along with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
  • In 2010, he was awarded the Jewish Community Hero Award for his inspiring service to both the Jewish community and all those in need of bone marrow transplants by Jewish Federations of North America.[4]
  • In 2013, Feinberg was named one of the top one hundred individuals who have positively influenced Jewish life this past year for innovation by The Algemeiner Jewish 100.
  • In late 2013, Feinberg received the prestigious Eisendrath Bearer of Light Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Reform Movement.

Trivia

  • Feinberg graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dickinson College in 1990 with a major in political science
  • An honorary brother of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity
  • Inaugural recipient of the Charles Bronfman Prize
  • Inaugural recipient of the National Marrow Donor Program's Allison Atlas Award
  • Established the very first bone marrow registry dedicated to increasing representation of donors of Jewish ethnic background to diversify the donor pool

References

  1. ↑ Day of Hope for Those Dying of Leukemia
  2. ↑ Jay Feinberg's Story
  3. ↑ Yeshiva University website
  4. ↑
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