Lazar honors Komen founder at Biennial
WASHINGTON — A Jewish Pittsburgh leader took center stage Thursday at the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial to honor the founder of a global effort to fight breast cancer.
Lynn Magid Lazar, national president of Women for Reform Judaism and a member of Temple Sinai in Squirrel, presented the Maurice N. Eisendrath “Bearer of Light” Award to Nancy Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and former U.S. ambassador to Hungary.
Lazar touted the Komen, which is named for Brinker’s sister — herself a victim of breast cancer — for investing more than $2 billion in research and advocacy since the organization’s founding in 1982.
She also noted that Komen held its first Race for the Cure in Jerusalem on Oct. 28. More than 5,000 people participated in the historic event, which city officials celebrated by bathing the walls of the Old City in pink lights at night.
In accepting the award, Brinker, who was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People 2008 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 from President Barack Obama, credited the organization for changing attitudes about breast cancer, taking it out of the shadows as a disease people rarely talked about to something more than 2.5 million Americans alone have beaten — and the survival rate continues to rise.
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