JBFCS RAISES RECORD 1.8 MILLION AT PLAZA GALA

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HIGH SOCIETY

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Jean And Martin Shafiroff

Jean Shafiroff And Lieba Nesis

The Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services (JBFCS) held its annual Spring benefit on recently at the Plaza Hotel. For more than 140 years the Board has been helping New Yorkers with mental illness, chemical dependencies, and special needs. The evening was sold-out with more than 400 people attending and more than $1.8 million raised-a record for this organization.

Alice Tisch

The nights  honorees were Mark H. Rachesky and Beacon Health Options who were both given The Schiff Community Impact Award and Jodi Schwartz who received the Madeleine Borg Lifetime Service Award. Dr. Rachesky is President of MHR Fund Management LLC, a New York based private equity firm he founded in 1996. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lionsgate Entertainment. Alice Tisch, President of the Board of Trustees, joked that everyone talks about how fortunate Rachesky is. She and Rachesky had an ongoing rapport with Rachesky recounting being at a business luncheon with Alice running over to his table screaming, "you have to give more."

Jodi Schwartz &  Mark Rachesky

 Jodi Schwartz, another honoree, who was wearing Chanel and is a prominent tax attorney at Wachtell Lipton, praised JBFCS for being the largest human service agency in the world serving over 43,000 people a year with an annual budget of $250 million. CEO David Rivel, who has held this position for the past five years, has taken JBFCS to a new level recently winning the gold prize for outstanding not-for-profit. The evening the beautiful Jean Shafiroff was wearing a magnificent orange and gold Oscar de la Renta dress. Jean has been an avid supporter of the organization for years buying tables for the dinner and serving on the board where she has personally met with many of the JBFCS recipients. Tonight the audience met Courtney Miller, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a taxi accident and has been nursed back to health by the organization. I had the honor of sitting next to Martin Shafiroff, husband of Jean, who is the best kept secret on Wall Street-a bestselling author and a great financial wizard who keeps an extremely low profile.



 Also in attendance were Wall Street moguls David Moore and Jerry Levin who are also heavily involved in UJA. Speaking of UJA, a dapper Eric Goldstein, who has taken over as CEO of UJA and brought it to new heights in terms of respectability and fundraising, spoke of the close 100-year bond between UJA and JBFCS. After a kosher dinner of chicken and salad the guests headed home to relax after experiencing a wonderful evening for the reasonable price of $1250.