The New Jewish Home Celebrates 8 Remarkable New Yorkers Over 80

At its fifth annual Eight Over Eighty benefit gala, The New Jewish Home will pay tribute to eight New Yorkers who, in their ninth and tenth decades, continue to live lives of remarkable achievement, vitality, and civic engagement. The event, at the Ziegfeld Ballroom on Monday, March 12, raises funds to support The New Jewish Home, one of the nation's largest and most diversified nonprofit geriatric rehabilitation, skilled nursing, and home health care programs, which together serves 12,000 older adults of all faiths and ethnicities each year. Over 450 business and philanthropic leaders, influencers, healthcare and eldercare advocates, and cultural patrons are expected to attend the event, which is projected to raise $1.5 million.

The honorees, each of whom will be celebrated in a video vignette, are entertainment legend Clive Davis (age 85), renowned journalist Marilyn Berger (age 82), political trailblazer David Dinkins (age 90), philanthropy stalwart Elizabeth McCormack (age 96), academia visionary Vartan Gregorian (age 83), nonprofit luminary Stephen Solender (age 80), and finance leaders Roy Zuckerberg (age 82) and John G. Heimann (age 88). These men and women, the best of the best in their individual fields, continue to show the world that trailblazing is ageless.

"This year's honorees are a testament to the accomplishments and vitality of the over-80 generation. They continue to live lives of remarkable achievement-showing us what it truly means to age like a New Yorker. They are role models, innovators, pioneers, and exceptional examples of living life to its fullest at every age," said Jeffrey Farber, MD, President and CEO, The New Jewish Home.

Members of the Eight Over Eighty Gala Committee include Carol Becker; Lisa Lippman and Benjamin Finkelstein; Robin and Scott Gottlieb; Judy and Michael Luskin; Nanette Rosenberg; Tami Schneider; and Sofia and Mike Segal.

Abbreviated biographies of the honorees follow below. For photos and full biographies, please visit www.8over80.org.

Marilyn Berger has been a journalist, biographer, and television correspondent for over 40 years, during which time she covered some of the most memorable news stories from around the world. She was the diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post during the Kissinger years, worked for NBC and ABC, and anchored various programs on public television. She has written for New York Magazine and The New Yorker and, more recently, major obituaries for The New York Times, including those of Ronald Reagan, Boris Yeltsin, Yitzhak Rabin, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, George Abbott, and Irving Berlin among many others.

Clive Davis is an American record producer, artists and repertoire executive, and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Throughout his career, Davis has presided over a number of national recording labels including Columbia Records, Arista Records, RCA Records, J Records, and BMG North America. Currently Davis is the chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment. He has been part of countless musical success stories involving artists like TLC, Rod Stewart, Air Supply, Alicia Keys, Barry Manilow, Christina Aguilera, Carlos Santana, Kelly Clarkson, Leona Lewis and Jennifer Hudson, and Whitney Houston.

David Dinkins is an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th Mayor of New York City, from 1990 to 1993. He is the only African American to have held this office. As Mayor, Dinkins was responsible for the establishment of numerous cultural staples such as Fashion Week, Restaurant Week, and Broadway on Broadway. His administration initiated the revitalization of Times Square and arranged for the U.S. Open Tennis Championships to take place in New York for 99 years. During his term, crime decreased more dramatically and more rapidly than at any time in previous New York City history. After leaving office, Dinkins joined the faculty of Columbia University as a Professor in the Practice of Public Policy. He remains an active patron, philanthropist, and board member to many nonprofit organizations and causes.

Vartan Gregorian is an Iranian-born, Armenian-American academic, serving as the 12th president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. One of America's most influential scholars, Gregorian has also served as president of Brown University, founding dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and provost at the University of Pennsylvania, and president of the New York Public Library. Gregorian is also the author of The Road to Home: My Life And Times; Islam: A Mosaic, Not A Monolith; and The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan, 1880-1946. He has served on several boards including the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, the J. Paul Getty Trust, Human Rights Watch, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gregorian's honors include the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the National Humanities Medal, and the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civil award.

John Heimann's influential career has spanned both the private and public sides of the finance world. A former investment banker, he was a founding partner of Warburg Pincus and a chairman of the Global Financial Institutions Group of Merrill Lynch. He was appointed as U.S. Comptroller of the Currency by President Jimmy Carter and served as the former New York State Supervisor of Banking, Commissioner of Housing and Community Development, Acting Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the First Chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination. He currently serves as a trustee of the Nasher Sculpture Center; director of the American Ditchley Foundation; member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a member of the Group of Thirty; and a director of the Chatham House Foundation.

Described as "the very soul of philanthropy," Elizabeth McCormack is a longtime philanthropic advisor to the Rockefeller family. McCormack was a nun for three decades, then earned her doctorate in philosophy from Fordham University and served as president of Manhattanville College. She was a founder of the Partnership for Palliative Care, which has helped transform that field into an integral part of health care, and she remains the organization's chair. Her past and current board memberships include Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Atlantic Philanthropies, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and colleges large and small. McCormack, born in 1922, has received honorary degrees from distinguished schools including Brandeis, Princeton, and the American University of Paris.

Stephen Solender is a longtime leader of the nonprofit community and served as the Chief Executive Officer of 9/11 United Services Group (USG), a non-profit organization of 13 New York City humane services organizations that focus on World Trade Center attacks recovery efforts. Prior to his appointment as the CEO of USG, Solender's prestigious work in social services benefited a number of organizations including the United Jewish Communities, the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, and the Associated Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore. Solender sits on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations and schools, including the Nonprofit Chief Executive Forum, and is currently chairman of the President's Advisory Council of North General Hospital in Harlem. He was also founding chairman of the Human Services Council of New York, an umbrella organization of the city's human service delivery agencies.

As a titan of finance, Roy Zuckerberg sits as a senior director of The Goldman Sachs Group after stepping down as vice chairman of the firm, a former member of the Executive Committee, and head of the Equities Division. During his celebrated career at Goldman Sachs, Zuckerberg also created the successful private investment company, Samson Investment Partners. Roy is former Chairman of the Board of Trustees and presently a member of the Executive Committee of Northwell Health, formerly North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, Inc. His generous philanthropic involvement also includes the University of Massachusetts, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and the New York Historical Society, as well as Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc.

About THE NEW JEWISH HOME

Serving New Yorkers of all faiths and ethnicities, The New Jewish Home was founded as the B'nai Jeshurun Ladies Benevolent Society for the Relief of Indigent Females in 1848. One of the nation's largest and most diversified not?for?profit geriatric health and rehabilitation systems, Jewish Home serves 12,000 older adults each year, in their homes, on campuses in Manhattan and Westchester, and in senior housing residences in the Bronx, through short-term rehabilitation, long?term skilled nursing, senior housing, and a wide range of home health programs. Jewish Home believes that high quality care and personal dignity are everyone's right, regardless of background or economic circumstances. Technology, innovation, applied research, and new models of care put The New Jewish Home at the vanguard of eldercare providers across the country. For more information, visit www.jewishhome.org.