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Howard Nathan Honored
for Giving the Gift of Life
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
H oward Nathan’s organization
is called Gift of Life and,
throughout his career, that
is what the Jewish Devon resident has
tried to provide.

He has largely succeeded, according
to colleagues and benefi ciaries.

Nathan, 68, spent his career orga-
nizing organ transplants for people
who needed them. He would have to
convince the family of one patient on
his deathbed to allow his organs to be
donated. Th en, Nathan and his Gift of
Life Donor Program team would coor-
dinate the process of getting the part
from one body to another.

Th at career lasted more than four
decades and included more than 55,000
organ transplants, according to an email
celebrating his career from Richard
Hasz, Gift of Life’s new president and
CEO. Nathan stepped down in January
and attended an in-person celebration
of his career on June 29. Gift of Life also
renamed its support and lodging cen-
ter for families who are going through
transplants from the Gift of Life Family
House to Gift of Life Howie’s House.

“His tireless dedication, leader-
ship and mentorship have infl uenced
best donation practices and policies
regionally, across the United States and
around the world,” Hasz wrote.

Ironically, Nathan never planned on
going into the fi eld. He wanted to be a
doctor, but he didn’t get into medical
school when he applied aft er graduat-
ing from Juniata College.

Since Nathan thought he would
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apply again, he started to beef
up his resume. He worked on a
microscope in a lab, research-
ing cancer and rabies. Th en
he enrolled in a graduate
program in the University of
Pittsburgh’s School of Public
Howard Nathan visits Israel.

Health. But he wasn’t happy
Courtesy of Denise Portner
there, either, so he answered
an ad for a job organizing kid-
ney transplants for surgeons in the the teams for surgical recoveries and
Philadelphia area.

placing the kidneys with recipients.

“It was basically surgeons who cre- Th e process could take 24-48 hours
ated a nonprofi t to get people to donate with no sleep.

kidneys,” Nathan said.

And he loved it.

At the time, he was still thinking of
“Th is was bigger than life,” Nathan
medical school.

said. “I thought, ‘I’ll apply to this job, and
And it became the rest of his life.

these guys will get me in,’” he said.

In 1983, the man who hired Nathan
Nathan got no answer at fi rst, but he left the organization, and Nathan
kept reaching out. Finally, the manager applied to take his place as executive
brought him in and told him he had director. He got the job overseeing a
no experience. In response, the young team of 10 people.

man off ered a proposition: He would
Eventually, both his team and his
work for free for three months.

mission grew. In the early 1980s, heart
“He hired me,” Nathan said.

and liver transplants became more
In 1978, kidney transplants were common, and the Gift of Life leader
the only transplants that doctors did. made sure to show up at press confer-
Nathan’s job was to fi nd and convince ences celebrating successful procedures
potential donors for patients at fi ve that he helped organize. He wanted to
area hospitals, including the Hospital make sure that donors got credit in
of the University of Pennsylvania and addition to the doctors.

Th omas Jeff erson University Hospital.

“Transplants don’t happen without a
Th e aspiring doctor thought the job donor,” Nathan said.

was cutting edge and that it would
While Gift of Life is based in
combine his interests in research and Philadelphia, it helps people all over
medicine— a solid resume booster for the country. In a January profi le of
med school applications.

Nathan, Th e Wall Street Journal called
But then he started working.

it “the largest and most successful
Nathan would get calls at 3 a.m. and organ donor and transplant network
have to drive to Scranton, Reading and in the country.” Nathan has traveled to
other locations. He would walk into a 33 countries, including Israel, to share
hospital room and see a family whose best practices with doctors and medi-
relative was not going to make it. Th ose cal institutions.

patients were “legally and medically
“Howard has had a tremendous
dead, but their organs were still work- impact not only in the Philadelphia
ing,” Nathan explained.

area but nationally as well,” said Robert
To convince family members to allow Goodman, a Westampton, New Jersey,
the donation, Nathan took a straight- resident and a recipient of a heart
forward approach.

transplant from Gift of Life. “He is
“Th is can be a legacy for that person’s truly a well-known expert, and if he’s
life,” he said.

not the best at what he’s done, he’s in
Once that hard part was over, the the top two or three.”
next one began. Nathan got doctors
and nurses to cooperate, organizing jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com



local
A JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
Local Jews Search for
Music from Holocaust
s Sam Gubins of Havertown
explained it, under the most
grotesque, horrible condi-
tions imaginable during the Holocaust,
the human spirit found a way to create
beauty. Th at beauty was in the thousands
of pieces of music craft ed and performed
by Jews as they fought to survive.

Now Holocaust Music Lost & Found,
a nonprofi t created by Manhattan res-
ident Janie Press, is on a mission to
recover that music for posterity. And two
local Jews, Gubins and Barry Abelson of
Rittenhouse Square, not only believe in
the mission but are part of it.

Gubins, the former president of a
scientifi c publishing organization, is
HMLF’s treasurer. Abelson, a corporate
lawyer, serves as a board member.

Both men are practicing Jews. Gubins
belongs to Congregation Beth Am Israel
in Penn Valley. Abelson is a member at
Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel in Center
City. Th e men joined HMLF because they
agree with Press when she says “having
this music survive is essential.” Th ey feel
it’s important to educate younger genera-
tions that are increasingly removed from
the Holocaust. But they also believe that
there’s a profound and transcendent les-
son about humanity in this music.

“People chose to live even while they
were dying, and there was death all
around them,” he said.

Press, “a fashion industry veteran”
according to a press release about HMLF,
launched the organization in April to
align with Yom HaShoah. But the idea
came to her in 2019 aft er she watched a
“60 Minutes” piece on Maestro Francesco
Lotoro, an Italian pianist and composer
whose own organization, Fondazione
ILMC, does the same thing. HMLF
is “supporting the work of Maestro
Francesco Lotoro,” per the release about
its launch. Lotoro “travels around the
world and meets with Holocaust sur-
vivors identifi ed through research,
outreach, educational programs and per-
formances,” the announcement added.

Gubins and Abelson got involved
because they knew Press. Th e treasurer
and the president have a mutual friend
Holocaust, Zandman lived with several
other people in the basement of a Polish
family’s house. Aft er he was liberated, he
went to Paris and got his Ph.D. Abelson
developed a relationship with Zandman
over the years. Th e lawyer called the
founder’s story one of “survival, perse-
verance and ultimately triumph.”
“Th at personal connection was another
motivating factor for me to get involved,”
Abelson said.

Sam Gubins
With HMLF, Gubins and Abelson will
focus on what they are good at. Gubins
now runs a nonprofi t, the Annual Review
Investment Corp., that “manages invest-
ments,” according to HMLF’s website,
so he’s serving as treasurer. Abelson will
provide legal and governance oversight.

“Everybody pitches in based on their
availability and skill set,” Abelson said. JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
Courtesy of Sam Gubins
| Investments | Asset Management |
| Capital Markets |
Barry Abelson
Photo by Vince Massa
who thought Gubins would be interested.

Abelson and Press are second cousins
who recently reconnected aft er more
than 50 years.

Both men also got close with a
Holocaust survivor. For Gubins, it was
his Uncle Boris, who spent two years
at Buchenwald. He was 80 pounds and
lying on a pallet when American GIs
liberated his camp. Uncle Boris settled
in Bordeaux in France aft er the war, but
Gubins met him in 1958 and learned his
story. Gubins’ father immigrated to the
United States in the 1920s but his twin
brother, Boris, did not follow along. He
thought he was safe. Gubins’ family vis-
ited Boris frequently aft er the war, and
the uncle came to the United States on
one occasion.

When asked his main reason for join-
ing HMLF, Gubins said, “To honor my
Uncle Boris.”
For Abelson, that survivor was
Felix Zandman, the founder of Vishay
Intertechnology, the multibillion-dollar
American company that makes semicon-
ductors and electronic parts. During the
Financial advice from a
knowledgeable neighbor.

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Managing Director – Investments
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

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Jenkintown, PA 19046
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