Milton Gralla Receives Beverly Minkoff Award at Convention 2001

In recognition of his longtime interest and generous support of ORT educational programs in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union, Women's American ORT presented the Beverly Minkoff Gates of Learning Award to Milton Gralla on July 22, 2001, at the Women's American ORT Convention 2001, held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City.

The Women's American ORT Beverly Minkoff Gates of Learning Award is given to an outstanding individual who has furthered the cause of education through personal initiative, and is Women's American ORT's most prestigious award. Previous recipients of the Beverly Minkoff Award include former First Lady, now New York Senator Hillary Clinton; former First Lady Barbara Bush; three-term governor of Vermont, Madelein Kunin; educational theorist Deborah W. Meier; and Dolores Kohl, founder of the Kohl Children's Museum.

Milton Gralla and his wife Shirley are dedicated philanthropists whose consuming vision has compelled them to support education as a mechanism to stimulate the rebirth and revitalization of Jewish life in Russia and Ukraine. The Grallas provided the total initial capital funding to establish the Milton and Shirley Gralla ORT Odessa Education Complex in Ukraine, which was dedicated in the spring of 1998. Additionally, they significantly contributed to Regeneration 2000, a program launched last spring to construct and equip eight ORT technology centers in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and Tatarstan that offer Jewish studies combined with the latest in computer and internet technology in order to attract young Jews. The concern, in the words of Milton Gralla, is "educate or evaporate"-if the current generation of young Jews does not learn about their heritage and religion, Judaism may cease to exist in the former Soviet Union.

A retired journalist, publisher and co-founder of Gralla Publications, Milton Gralla co-authored the book How Good Guys Grow Rich, a compendium of strategies to achieve financial success and life-long satisfaction that debunk the old adage that "good guys finish last."

Residents of Boca Raton, Florida and Fort Lee, New Jersey, Shirley and Milton both have received honorary doctorate degrees from Yeshiva University and have been hooded as Fellows of Brandeis University. Mrs. Gralla is an active and long-standing member of Women's American ORT. Mr. Gralla serves on the boards of The Jewish Week newspaper, Yeshiva University, and Boys Town Jerusalem, and is an Honorary Board Member of World ORT.

MORE PRESS RELEASES