05/15/2025
Mt. Sinai Health Foundation Receives Eisenman Award at Jewish Federation of Cleveland's Annual Meeting
Daniel Zelman, left, board chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, presents Jim Ratner, Mt. Sinai Health Foundation incoming board chair, and Mitchell Balk, president of the Mt. Sinai Health Foundation, with the 2025 Charles Eisenman Award for Exceptional Civic Contributions. CJN Photo / Abigail Preiszig
Article reprinted with permission from Cleveland Jewish News
by Abigail Preiszig
The Mt. Sinai Health Foundation in Cleveland was honored with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland’s highest civic honor, the Charles Eisenman Award for Exceptional Civic Contributions.
Named for one of the Federation’s founders and first president, Charles Eisenman, the annual award recognizes individuals or organizations for exceptional civic contributions.
Mitchell Balk, Mt. Sinai Health Foundation president, and Jim Ratner, Mt. Sinai Health Foundation incoming board chair, accepted the award at the 121st Annual Meeting of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland on May 13 at Park Synagogue in Pepper Pike.
Daniel Zelman, board chair of the Federation, presented the Mt. Sinai Health Foundation with a citation and a donation that will be made to the charity of its choice, the Jewish Federation of Cleveland Campaign for Jewish Needs.
“If the Mount Sinai Foundation has been able to prevent human suffering and enable Clevelanders to live their healthiest lives, then we will have lived up to the time-honored goal of our predecessor institution,” Balk said as he accepted the award. “My wish for the foundation going forward is that we will always be worthy to bear the name Mount Sinai.”
Over 30 years, the Mt. Sinai Health Foundation has made over 2,000 grants resulting in over $160 million toward improving health and medicine, according to the annual meeting program. Along with funding, it convenes partners across the nonprofit, public and business sectors to collaborate on solutions for complicated systemic issues like addressing high infant mortality rates, promoting lead safety initiatives and providing quality autism care.
The Mt. Sinai Health Foundation rose from Mt. Sinai Hospital in Cleveland, established in 1903 to provide a professional home to Jewish doctors who were excluded from practicing elsewhere and was sold to for profit owners in 1996 who closed the hospital in the year 2000. Emulating the hospitals impact, it remains a supporting foundation of the Federation – making substantial grants to Jewish Cleveland’s Campaign for Jewish Needs since its founding – and providing direct grants to Jewish organizations including Naaleh Cleveland in Lyndhurst, Bikur Cholim of Cleveland in Cleveland Heights and Bellefaire JCB in Shaker Heights.
“Mt. Sinai puts our values out there into the general community while maintaining a strong commitment to its heritage in the Jewish community,” Erika B. Rudin-Luria, president of the Federation said during a video presentation at the meeting.
The Mt. Sinai Health Foundation was also a founding partner of the Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, makes an impact on the nursing profession in Northeast Ohio, and partnered with MetroHealth Medical Center to create, operate and fund the Nurse-Family Partnership to provide low-income first-time mothers with nurse home visits, which has been tracked to show positive change in live births and infant mortality, the program said.
In addition to its leadership of many other coalitions and collaborations touching multiple aspects of medical access and healthcare, the Mt. Sinai Health Foundation’s central role in community-wide efforts is also exemplified by its innovations as a policy change agent influencing government programs like Medicaid and investments in medical research and education, the program said.
“Through its ongoing support of health initiatives, community development and education the Foundation has made a great impact on Cleveland’s progress,” Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb said during the video presentation. “From funding medical research, supporting social services that improve health and wellbeing, the foundation has consistently worked to address the community’s most pressing needs.”
In accepting the award, Balk asked members of the Mt. Sinai Health Foundation board of directors to stand and be recognized, as well as the professional staff in attendance.
