Mark Gerson
{{Short description|American businessman}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}}
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{{notability|Biographies|date=September 2018}}
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Mark Gerson is an American investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He co-founded the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG){{cite web|url=https://glg.it/who-we-are/|title=Who We Are|website=GLG|access-date=June 28, 2020}} and Thuzio. Gerson is also involved in philanthropic organizations African Mission Healthcare Foundation and United Hatzalah.
Gerson grew up in the Short Hills neighborhood of Millburn, New Jersey and attended Millburn High School.Gerson, Mark. [https://indexarticles.com/reference/national-review/molding-the-good-citizen-the-politics-of-high-school-history-texts/ "Molding the Good Citizen: The Politics of High-School History Texts."], National Review. Accessed July 19, 2021. "I remember taking an Advanced Placement class in government at Millburn High School in New Jersey with a wonderful teacher, Mr. Stivers." He had his bar mitzvah ceremony at Temple B'nai Jeshurun.{{Cite web |title=Interview with Mark Gerson |url=https://www.maxraskin.com/interviews/mark-gerson |access-date=2023-09-28 |website=Interviews with Max Raskin |language=en-US}} Gerson received a BA from Williams College and a JD from Yale Law School.{{cite web|url=https://militarist-monitor.org/profile/mark-gerson/|title=Mark Gerson|date=October 21, 2013|access-date=June 28, 2020|website=Militarist Monitor}}
Business
Gerson and fellow Yale Law School graduate Thomas Lehrman founded the Gerson Lehrman Group in 1998. Gerson Lehrman group, otherwise known as GLG, is a peer to peer business learning company. GLG is a knowledge brokerage and primary research firm with a stated membership-based platform of more than 600,000 independent consultants.{{Cite web|url=https://glg.it/overview/|title=Overview}}
Gerson also co-founded Thuzio, a professional booking marketplace, with former NFL player Tiki Barber,{{Cite web|url=https://www.thuzio.com/|title=Thuzio {{!}} Julius {{!}} Thuzio Executive Club|website=www.thuzio.com|access-date=2017-01-16}} and Create, a venture studio.{{Cite web |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029095253/https://madebycreate.com/about |website=madebycreate.com |archivedate=29 Oct 2020 |title=About Create |url=https://madebycreate.com/about}}
Gerson helped found the Tel Aviv Angel Group which invested in early stage Israeli startups and later on Maverick Ventures Israel, a venture capital fund composed of private investors that invests in early growth Israeli startups. Gerson serves on the fund’s [https://www.maverick.vc/team board of advisors] .
Philanthropy
Gerson is the co-founder and chairman of United Hatzalah, a network of volunteer medics in Israel.{{Cite web|url=https://israelrescue.org/blog/faq/|title=FAQ | Saving Lives in Israel with Rapid Emergency Response|date=9 November 2017}}
Gerson co-founded African Mission Healthcare Foundation with Dr. Jon Fielder in 2010.{{Cite web|url=https://www.williams.edu/feature-stories/16635/ |title=From Williams to Africa |website=williams.edu |date=2016-11-28}} The Foundation seeks to improve access to medical care in Africa.{{Cite web|url=https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/philanthropy-magazine/article/modern-missionaries/ |title=Modern Missionaries |website=philanthropyroundtable.org |date=2018}} AMHF supports the work of Christian medical missionaries serving in Africa in three areas: clinical care, training and infrastructure.{{Cite web|url=https://africanmissionhealthcare.org/changing-lives/improving-maternal-child-health/ |title=Providing much needed care for Mothers and Children |website=africanmissionhealthcare.org |access-date=2020-07-21}}
AMHF has forged partnerships with Christian Broadcasting Network{{Cite web|url=https://www1.cbn.com/health/500000-medical-prize-unites-christian-jewish-faiths/ |title=$500,000 Medical Prize Unites Christian, Jewish Faiths |website=cbn.com |date=13 October 2016 |access-date=2020-07-21}} and Samaritan's Purse{{Cite web|url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.samaritanspurse.org/pdfs/OnCallFall2018.pdf |title=WORLD MEDICAL MISSION - ON CALL |date=2018 |access-date=2020-07-31}}
As part of AMHF, Gerson helped create the Gerson L'Chaim Prize{{Cite web|url=https://world.wng.org/2017/01/allies_in_good_works|title=Allies in good works - WORLD|website=world.wng.org|access-date=2017-01-16}} in August 2016.{{Cite web|url=https://medium.com/@AfricaMHF/lchaim-adc560b77252#.axl21zpa9|title=The $500,000 Gerson l'Chaim Prize|date=17 August 2016}}
In September 2021 Gerson donated US$18 million to Christian medical missions in Africa. {{Cite web|url=https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2021/september/jewish-couples-desire-to-love-the-stranger-leads-to-largest-private-gift-ever-to-christian-medical-missions-in-africa|title=Jewish Couple's Desire to 'Love the Stranger' Leads to 'Largest Private Gift Ever' to Christian Medical Missions in Africa|date=22 September 2021}}
= L'Chaim Prize for Outstanding Medical Missionary Service =
The L'Chaim Prize for Outstanding Medical Missionary Service was founded by Gerson and his wife Erica Gerson.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/health/missionary-hospitals-africa-prize.html|title=Jewish Philanthropists Create a Prize for Christian Missionaries|newspaper=New York Times|access-date=June 28, 2020|author=Donald G. McNeil Jr.|date=October 27, 2017}} The L'Chaim Prize is a $500,000 grant aimed to award medical missionaries for their service and help them fund their mission. Due to the rise in independent churches, Gerson believed that there was a shortage of medical missionaries and believed this prize would help the field.{{Cite news |work=The New York Jewish Week|pages=5, 8|title='Doing God's Work' In Rural Africa|last=Lipman|first=Steve|date=2018-02-09|id = {{ProQuest|2002969522}}}} The prize's name, L'Chaim, means "to life" in Hebrew.
== Recipients ==
Media
On Gerson's podcast The Rabbi's Husband with Mark Gerson he interviews a thinker with religious, political or theological perspectives regarding a passage from the Torah. Guests have included United States Senators Cory Booker, Tom Cotton, William Cassidy, Israeli author Yossi Klein Halevi, speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz and Bishop Robert Stearns.{{Cite web|url=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rabbis-husband/id1510424100/|title = The Rabbi's Husband on Apple Podcasts}} He also hosts a weekly Bible study with Eagles Wings, an international Christian organization supporting Israel initiatives.{{Cite web|url=https://eagleswings.org/pesachpt1|title=Bishop Stearns hosts National Pastors for Special Passover Presentation|date=2 April 2020}}
He is the author of the national best-selling book The Telling: How Judaism's Essential Book Reveals the Meaning of Life (St. Martins Publishing Group, March 2, 2021){{Cite web|url=https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250624246|title = The Telling | Mark Gerson | Macmillan}} {{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-03-24/bestsellers-list-sunday-march-21|title = Bestsellers List Sunday, March 28, 2021|website = Los Angeles Times|date = 24 March 2021}} and The Telling Workbook: An Interactive Guide to the Haggadah (St. Martins Publishing Group, March 8, 2022).{{Cite book|last=Gerson|first=Mark|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vpc9EAAAQBAJ|title=The Telling Workbook: An Interactive Guide to the Haggadah|date=2022-03-08|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group|isbn=978-1-250-84319-7|language=en}}
Politics
Gerson is the author of the books The Neoconservative Vision: From the Cold War to the Culture Wars ({{ISBN|1568330545}}) and In the Classroom: Dispatches from an Inner-City School that Works ({{ISBN|0684827565}}), and the editor of The Essential Neoconservative Reader ({{ISBN|0201479680}}).
He is active politically, with most support going to Republican candidates.{{citation needed|date=January 2017}} In 2015, Gerson joined other Republicans in signing an amicus curiae brief supporting a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, which was submitted to the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges.{{Cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/28/the-pro-freedom-republicans-are-coming-131-sign-gay-marriage-brief.html|title=The Pro-Freedom Republicans Are Coming: 131 Sign Gay Marriage Brief|newspaper=The Daily Beast|date=28 February 2013|last1=Avlon|first1=John}}
References
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Category:Yale Law School alumni
Category:Williams College alumni
Category:American philanthropists
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)