Maimonides Award Presented to Andrew Abramson and Gerald Lipkin

On September 15, 2005, at the Crystal Plaza in Livingston, New Jersey, Andrew B. Abramson and Gerald H. Lipkin received the Maimonides Award from the Lautenberg Research Center and American Friends of The Hebrew University. The Maimonides Award pays tribute to dedicated supporters of cancer research in Israel. Though their sustained efforts, Mr. Lipkin and Mr. Abramson have enabled Hebrew University scientists to pursue revolutionary new treatments for cancer and other diseases, including AIDS, Parkinson's, lupus and juvenile diabetes.

Andrew Abramson, a graduate of Cornell University with a background in Civil Engineering, is president and CEO of The Value Group. As such, he oversees the daily operations of one of New Jersey's most renowned full service real estate companies. An esteemed recipient of AFHU's Torch of Learning Award, Mr. Abramson is known for communal leadership, including as the major gifts chairman for the United Jewish Campaign of Greater Clinton-Passaic.

Gerald Lipkin is chairman of the board, president and CEO of Valley National Bank. The business leader is a graduate of Rutgers University and N.Y.U. and has many community ties, including to Rutgers Business School, where he has fulfilled diverse leadership roles. For more than 20 years Mr. Lipkin has helped to raise funds for basic cancer research at the Lautenberg Center. He was honored for his contributions in 1988 with the Torch of Learning Award.

The evening's guest-speaker was Dr. Larry Norton, the Deputy Physician-in-Chief of Memorial Hospital with responsibility for Breast Cancer Programs, and who also serves as the medical director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Dinner co-chairs were Gerald Korde, James G. Lawrence, David Mandelbaum, and John D. Schupper.