Real Estate Icon Michael Stoler's Gift Helps Ensure Jewish Genetic Health Michael Stoler is a New York real estate magnate and managing director of Madison Realty; president of New York Real Estate TV and host of the television shows Building New York: New York Stories and The Stoler Report; real estate commentator for 1010 WINS and real estate columnist for a variety of publications. Despite his leading presence and professional interests in the real estate industry, many of Stoler’s philanthropic interests lie in a variety of health-related organizations and he has served on the boards of NYU Langone Medical Center, Helene Fuld College of Nursing, and American Friends of Rambam Medical Center, among others. He is also a former chairman and current honorary chairman of the Men’s Division Executive Board at YU’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Most notably, he co-founded the Foundation for Medical Evaluation and Early Detection in November 2001. “I spoke to a few of my friends, and we decided to come on board as benefactors and pool resources to provide funding for all types of medical screenings,” said Stoler. The Foundation’s primary mission is to make screenings for various diseases – such as stroke, seven forms of cancer including prostate cancer, lung cancer, chronic kidney disease and osteoporosis – available to the general public free of cost in the hope that early detection can save lives. The Foundation works with leading academic and medical institutions to participate in these free screenings. “We have no overhead and no operating expenses – our mission is simply to obtain funding to negotiate testing fees with healthcare institutions to help more people get tested,” Stoler said. Stoler, who serves as president and CEO of the Foundation, became familiar with Jewish genetic diseases when a friend of his confided in him that he was raising a young child suffering from Mucolipidosis Type IV (ML4), a debilitating and rare Jewish genetic disease that has left the child without the ability to walk, talk, and eventually, see. His friend told Stoler that he and his wife were tested in college by an organization that was limited in its scope of testing for genetic diseases. Unfortunately, prior to their marriage, neither his friend nor his wife were ever advised to undergo further Jewish genetic testing despite the fact that additional tests had been made available. “I committed right then and there to working toward ensuring that no couple ever faces the tragedy and hardship my friend is dealing with on a daily basis,” said Stoler. Through his foundation, Stoler has pledged a gift of at least $60,000 to Yeshiva University’s Program for Jewish Genetic Health; the gift is being applied toward providing carrier testing for ML4 and other Jewish genetic diseases to uninsured and underinsured individuals, some of whom have been referred to the program by Stoler himself. Read full article at News and Views at YU...