Congressman Barney Frank
Representing Massachusetts' 4th District

Rofeh International -- New England Chassidic Center Annual Dinner
Extensions of Remarks
October 10, 2007

Madam Speaker, for many years I have had the honor of sharing with our colleagues information about a very important event not just in greater Boston, but from a national perspective. It is the annual dinner of ROFEH International--New England Chassidic Center. Under the leadership of Grand Rabbi Levi Y. Horowitz of the New England Chassidic Center, ROFEH International does extraordinarily important work in the medical field. Rabbi Horowitz is himself a distinguished authority on medical ethics, and plays an important role in helping medical professionals in Boston deal with the ethical issues that modern science encounters. Project ROFEH also plays a very important role in helping provide access to the medical care that is available in Boston to people around the world.

Annually, under the leadership of Rabbi Horowitz, these organizations have a dinner in which leading citizens who have contributed to the work that they do are honored. Without exception they are men and women of great distinction and generosity. This year the awardees are Dr. Kenneth C. Anderson, who receives the ROFEH International Distinguished Service Award, and Keevin Geller, who receives the Man of the Year Award.

Madam Speaker, I was pleased to receive biographies of these two distinguished leaders and I ask that they be printed here along with my congratulations to the people who do the important work of ROFEH International and the New England Chassidic Center, under Rabbi Horowitz's leadership.

KENNETH C. ANDERSON, MD "ROFEH INTERNATIONAL DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD''

Dr. Anderson graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School, trained in internal medicine at John's Hopkins Hospital, and completed hematology, medical oncology, and tumor immunology training at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is the Kraft Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School; and serves as Chief of the Division of Hematologic Neoplasia, Director of the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center, and Vice Chair of the Joint Program in Transfusion Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

He serves as chair of the NCCN Multiple Myeloma Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee; as a Cancer and Leukemia Group B Principal Investigator; on the Board of Scientific Advisors of the International Myeloma Foundation; on the Board of Directors and Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation; as well as on the Board of Directors and Chair of the Leadership Committee of the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium. He is a Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Research Scientist and has had long term RO-1, PO-I, and SPORE NIH funding.

His numerous awards including the 2001 Charles C. Lund Award of the American Red Cross Blood Services, the 2003 Waldenstrom's award for research in plasma cell dyscrasias, the 2004 Johnson & Johnson Focused Giving Award for Setting New Directions in Science and Technology, the 2005 Third Annual International Myeloma Foundation Robert A. Kyle Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2007 Joseph A. Burchenal Award for Clinical Research from the American Association for Cancer Research. His paradigm for identifying and validating targets in the myeloma cell and its bone marrow milieu has already provided novel therapies, and offers great promise to improve patient outcome in hematologic malignancies and solid tumors as well.

KEEVIN GELLER, ROFEH INTERNATIONAL NEW ENGLAND CHASSIDIC CENTER MAN OF THE YEAR AWARD

Keevin Geller, has been proud to call the Bostoner Rebbe, his friend for over thirty years. Mr. Geller is the owner of Barney and Carey Lumber Company since 1978.

In addition to his lumber business, Keevin is a real estate developer and owner. He was one of the first property owners to convert a Back Bay townhouse into condominiums, and went on to complete over twenty-five such projects there and on Beacon Hill. He built and restored many homes in Milton, also creating that town's first condominium complex in the buildings of a former estate. A serious conservationist, he has specialized in the redevelopment of existing structures, while protecting the surrounding land. He was honored with the Commonwealth Award for land preservation.

Keevin was one of the founding members of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He is a thirty-year member of the Hundred Club, and a life member of many conservation organizations. He is a graduate of Boston University, with a major in Latin. His wife, Cynthia, also a BU alumna, is the granddaughter of the late Max Oransky, one of the Rebbe's father's Chassidim. Cynthia and Keeven reside in Sharon, Massachusetts, where he serves on various town committees.