IAACI:

Mona Kidon, MD

Menachem Rottem, MD

Webmaster: 

David Rosenthal, DO

 Admin. Assistant: 

Beth Goldfarb

Treasurer:
Randee Mansfield
Founder (1984):
William Silvers, MD 
Past Chairpeople:
William Silvers, MD
Lyndon Mansfield, MD

Allergists for Israel is a 501(c)(3) organization.

Last Updated 10/24/2009

Hosted by: 1and1

February 2010

Dear AFI members and friends,

Hag Sameach in anticipation of the upcoming festival of Purim. It seems like every meeting there is a Jewish holiday—one of the big advantages of being Jewish. I look forward to seeing everyone in New Orleans post-Katrina. We have great plans for a wonderful Friday night Kiddush and a weekend celebration of Purim away from home featuring several readings of the Megillah. Our Sunday night event is going to be quite unique. We are planning a Gala Masquerade Dinner at Generations Hall, a historic warehouse converted event facility, located a short walk from the Hilton Hotel. The evening will feature Dr. Tim Craig, whose talk is entitled “An Overview of the Exercise Induced Bronchospasm Landmark Survey.”

Also speaking is Mr. Ned Goldberg who is the Executive Director of New Orleans Jewish Children’s Regional Service. Ned will talk about the Jewish community in New Orleans and provide a perspective of how the Jewish community and the New Orleans community as a whole have coped post-Katrina. The New Orleans Klezmer All-Star Band will play traditional klezmer music as well as some good old New Orleans jazz. Great food and drinks coupled with great friends promises to make this a very enjoyable evening. Costumes are encouraged but for those more reserved, masks will be provided. I look forward to seeing you all there. This past year, AFI was honored to be invited to give a Sister Symposium at the World Allergy Organization held in Argentina. The subject of our symposium was, “The Environmental Impact of Air Pollution on Non-Allergic Respiratory Disorders.” AFI also sponsored a program followed by a reception for our South American colleagues and AFI members attending the WAO at Argentina’s oldest synagogue, known as Libertad Temple. This event was very well attended and hopefully will be the first of many AFI sponsored outreach programs to our allergy colleagues at international meetings. I want to give special thanks to Edgardo Jares who without his efforts this event would not have been possible.

This past year AFI has awarded three additional research grants totaling $9,000. Congratulations to Arnon Broides (Role of Bruton Tyrosine Kinase and Leflunomide Metabolite Analog (LFM-A13), on Neutrophil Functions in Patients with X Linked Agammaglobulinemia), Ariel Munitz (Role of Esophageal Epithelial Cell Related Cell Surface Receptors in the Pathogenesis of Eosinophilic Esophagitis) and Miguel Stein (The Prevalence and Long Term Follow-up of Eosinophilic Esophagitis in Israel, a Retrospective Pathology Based Analysis). Although these research awards are relatively modest at this juncture in the short history of our organization, we must remember that a spark can light a fire. We expect great things to come from these researchers. We continue to support Mini-fellowship programs. Dr. Eduardo Shahar, who immigrated from Argentina to Israel in 1989 and is currently a faculty member at the Institute of Allergy, Clinical Immunology & AIDS on the Rambam Health Care Campus, in Haifa will attend this year’s AAAAI meeting followed by a three week minifellowship at the University of Cincinnati and Children’s Hospital. We welcome other institutions to participate in this mini-fellowship program. Please contact me at jonathan.bernstein@uc.edu if you are interested in being a host institution.

To date, AFI has provided over $70,000 to fund research and educational grants as well as sponsoring professional meetings all in keeping with our mission which is to join together with our Israeli Allergy colleagues to foster education and research activities in our specialty. We are very fortunate to have a great corporate sponsor of AFI in TEVA pharmaceuticals. Their support not only allows our organization to hold annual events at the national allergy meetings but also to fulfill our mission. Special thanks to Greg Lund, Mark Salyer and the entire TEVA group for their enduring commitment to AFI.

However, AFI programming would not be possible without the support of our members. I therefore encourage everyone to go to our , and submit your dues electronically if you have not done so for 2010. This meeting is our big fundraiser not unlike Yom Kippur. We hope that you feel as strongly as we do about the value AFI brings to our professional community. Your contribution of the $118 annual dues is a confirmation of your support for AFI activities. But don’t just stop with you! Tell your friends about the great non-secular fellowship AFI promotes and encourage them to become members and attend our events as well. Remember, an organization is only as good as its membership and we wouldn’t be in the position we are in today without you! On behalf of our board of directors and staff, I sincerely thank you for continuing to support AFI. We are already in the early stages of planning for a joint IAACI AFI event in 2012, either in conjunction with the ACAAI or AAAAI. Based on feedback from our previous meeting in December, 2008, we are very excited about the prospects of a second international meeting in Israel.

I look forward to seeing you all in New Orleans.