Soroka Medical Center held its Sixth Annual Gala Benefit Dinner at The Pierre Hotel on Tuesday May 1, 2018 with cocktails beginning at 6:30 PM. Soroka Medical Center, the second largest Hospital in Israel, is the only major medical center in the entire Negev serving a population of more than one million inhabitants, including 400,000 children. It is located in Beer-Sheba and with 1,100 beds is among Israel’s largest and most advanced hospitals providing comprehensive cancer care to its patients.
Professor Itzhak Avital, the Head of the Cancer Center told me that “a true legacy is not what you leave behind but the way you live your life.” He further explained that 40 percent of the people in the room tonight will develop cancer with one out of two men and one in three women getting cancer, making it necessary to have a smart cancer center with artificial intelligence in order to transform cancer into a manageable “chronic disease.” After raising $10 million the Center will be named after leading oncologist Larry Norton in honor of his contributions and support.
Dr. Norton is the Chair of Clinical Oncology at the Evelyn Lauder Breast
Cancer Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering and is renowned for mathematical modeling in therapeutic development. Dr. Norton was joined by his celebrity friends Paul Shaffer and Dick Cavett and dinner with Norton was auctioned off to two different attendees for the astronomical sum of $21,000 each. Dick Cavett also auctioned his Montauk home, replete with seven bedrooms, for 4 days and 3 nights for the extravagant price of $12,000. We were even treated to a duet between former David Letterman bandleader of 33 years, Paul Shaffer, on the piano, accompanied by Dr. Norton on the bass guitar-prettyguitar-pretty cool for an oncologist.
Shaffer, who was introduced as the man who was offered the part of George Costanza on Seinfeld but turned it down, joked that he was lucky to have dinner with Dr. Norton three days ago for free and regaled the audience with a fantastic piano rendition of “Exodus.”
As Co-Chairs David Kimiabakhsh and Michelle Retelny thanked Dr. Norton for his pivotal work Ambassador Dani Dayan said that Soroka had revolutionized the city of Beer-Sheba converting it from a place where Abraham had pitched his tent to a major metropolis-becoming one of the most cutting edge and sophisticated cities thanks to Soroka. A Literary Arts Award was also given to Nicole Krauss who is the bestselling author of four novels and winner of the Saroyan Prize for International Literature. After a special tribute to Rosalind Franklin, whose nieces Caroline Freidfertig and Rosalind Franklin accepted the award on her behalf, we were told how she uncovered the secret of the DNA helix formation leading to the discovery and understanding of the human genome. With all these incredible men and women being heralded for their phenomenal contributions it was now time for some chocolate souffle and cookies-a savory ending to an informative evening.
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