New York—February 4, 2008—In what has become a family tradition, the Perlman family of Chicago has continued its support of the Weizmann Institute of Science through the establishment of the Joni Perlman-Rosenberg Scholarship Fund for the Support of Cancer Research.
The Scholarship Fund was established by the Perlman Family Foundation. This contribution makes a significant impact upon the Weizmann Institute’s world-renowned cancer research programs. The Perlman family’s generosity will now make $1,250,000 available for cancer research at the Weizmann Institute’s campus in Rehovot, Israel, where scientists are gaining new insights into how cancer develops and spreads, in addition to developing better treatments, preventions, and diagnostics.
Joan “Joni” Perlman Rosenberg was the youngest child of Jane and the late Harold L. Perlman, who were treasured friends of the Weizmann Institute and members of the American Committee’s President’s Circle. Harold Perlman was a long-standing member of its International Board of Governors and was the founding Chairman of the Chicago Region of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science. Harold and Jane Perlman’s most prominent gift was the establishment of the Perlman Chemical Sciences Building, home of the Department of Materials and Interfaces and Department of Chemical Physics, and the focal point of research in these disciplines since its dedication more than three decades ago. The Perlmans also founded the Perlman Institute of Chemical Sciences, the Perlman Wing for Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, and took part promoting scholarly exchanges between Institute scientists and their counterparts in American centers of research and higher education. Harold was awarded the title of Weizmann Honorary Fellow in 1974.
Joni Perlman was an educator in the Chicago area, where she was born and raised. She and her husband, Laurence “Larry” M. Rosenberg, had three sons: David, Daniel, and Michael. After receiving her master’s degree in education, she became a school teacher until dedicating herself full-time to the care of her family and raising of her boys. Her teaching career was to be the beginning of her lifelong work for the welfare of children, and she remained active until the very end of her life volunteering in the Jewish community for children’s causes.
In 1984, she died of breast cancer at age 45. The Scholarship Fund established in her name at the Weizmann Institute of Science honors her commitment to education by encouraging the pursuit of knowledge. It is also faithful to her mantra — “Live, Love, Laugh” — as it aspires to a brighter future and an enhanced quality of life for others with cancer.
The Joni Perlman Rosenberg Scholarship Fund for the Support of Cancer Research continues the Perlman family’s philanthropic tradition with the Weizmann Institute of Science. The scholarship will be used to support students at the Weizmann Institute’s Feinberg Graduate School participating in cancer research.
The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world's top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to 2,600 scientists, students, technicians, and supporting staff. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials, and developing new strategies for protecting the environment.
