PRAYERS

Friends, many of you have asked me off-line why the recent silence on these pages. 

I want to ask you for your prayers for our son, Josh.

Josh is a 53 year-old father of three, an entrepreneur in New York City -- healthy and fit. An athlete -- a 4-year starter as Cornell's point guard and a starter on three United States Maccabiah Games basketball team. He continued to play actively until last week...and last week now seems so long, long ago. 

Two weeks ago, Josh tripped over a computer cord in hius office, fell and hit his head on the concrete floor. Josh began to experience some vision and memory issues to the point that on Monday of last week he was rushed to NYU-Langone where the doctors discovered some "minor blood leakage" on the brain. 

The next day, Josh reached me while I was traveling for JNF-USA and delivered the most devastating news possible: an MRI and further tests had disclosed that he has Glioblastoma -- the cancer that has taken the lives of among others, Senators Ted Kennedy and John McCain. This horrific brain cancer was totally unrelated to that fall the week earlier.

As I write this, our son is being prepped for brain surgery at Columbia University Medical Center. He could not be in better hands but the present and the future are beyond daunting.

Our son has an incredible support system -- his siblings and their spouses, his children, ex-wife and his significant other, our extended family and Josh's great, life-long friends and, of course, his parents.

Please include Josh in your prayers.

With great appreciation,

Richard