Facilitating Life-Saving Marrow and
Stem Cell Transplants
When Jay Feinberg was selected as the inaugural recipient of The Prize in 2004, Charles Bronfman described him as a Jewish hero. Shortly after graduating from college, Feinberg was diagnosed with leukemia and required a bone marrow transplant. Mr. Feinberg used his personal crisis to create a lifesaving grassroots movement, the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation. By enrolling more than 200,000 Jewish donors, Gift of Life has increased the chances of a Jewish patient finding a bone marrow match to over 80 percent, from less than five percent in 1991.
Under Feinberg’s leadership, Gift of Life has become one of the world’s most effective donor registries. Gift of Life has facilitated transplants for approximately 2,400 cancer patients around the world, and has built an umbilical cord blood bank which will increase the chances of a suitable match to over 80 percent, enabling Gift of Life to serve nearly all Jewish patients in need. Groups in Israel, England, Brazil, and North America have adopted Jay’s registry model for specialized ethnocen tric recruitment strategies. Gift of Life’s membership ranks have grown through partnerships with AEPi, Foundation for Jewish Camps, Hillel and Taglit Birthright Israel, enrolling young donors while teaching them Jewish values and leadership skills.
Gift of Life has been an innovator in the field of donor recruitment. Most notably the organization was the first to deploy buccal swabs as a testing platform for large scale recruitment. This has been the catalyst for an industry shift to the technology.
Prior to winning The Prize, Feinberg served as a policy advisor to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the New Jersey Department of Health. He also received a National Marrow Donor Program award, Hadassah’s World Citizenship Award, and an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University in recognition of his humanitarian achievements. In 2008, Gift of Life was awarded accreditation by the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA). The WMDA elected Mr. Feinberg to the Board of Directors, where he served as Secretary of North and South America. Mr. Feinberg was recently voted the 2010 Jewish Community Hero by the Jewish Federations of North America, an honor reminiscent of Mr. Bronfman’s assertion years ago. Jay received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
