An extraordinary volunteer organization.
The Jack Martin Fund
The Jack Martin Fund, now marking its 75th Anniversary, is one of the most remarkable stories of volunteer support of medical care, research and education. In terms of outright generosity, faith in the promise of research to prevent and treat life-threatening diseases and commitment to one institution, the fund has few equals. Since its inception in 1950, the Fund has contributed more than $36 million to Mount Sinai to further progress in human health through education, research and technology.
Jack's Story
Who was Jack Martin?
Mount Sinai
We have partnered with Mount Sinai Hospital since 1950
The Jack Martin Fund’s partnership with Mount Sinai began in 1950. Our partnership has continued for 72 years and has provided Mount Sinai with donations of nearly $45 million over the years.
The Jack Martin Fund continues to play a pivotal role at Mount Sinai in supporting the JMF Division of Pediatric Hematology & Oncology which allows the fund to stay consistent with its original mission.
More about Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai has entered a new era of prominence. With a new state-of-the-art hospital and a vigorous and productive medical school, Mount Sinai is determined to remain in the forefront of modern science and medicine and to assume the leadership in confronting the major public health issues of our time.
Mount Sinai has entered a new era of prominence. With a new state-of-the-art hospital and a vigorous and productive medical school, Mount Sinai is determined to remain in the forefront of modern science and medicine and to assume the leadership in confronting the major public health issues of our time.
The Mount Sinai Health System is an integrated health care system providing exceptional medical care to our local and global communities. Encompassing the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and seven hospital campuses in the New York metropolitan area, as well as a large, regional ambulatory footprint, Mount Sinai is internationally acclaimed for its excellence in research, patient care, and education across a range of specialties.
The Health System is designed to increase efficiencies and economies of scale; improve quality and outcomes; and expand access to advanced primary, specialty, and ambulatory care services throughout a wide clinical network. The Health System includes more than 7,000 primary and specialty care physicians and 12 minority-owned free-standing ambulatory surgery centers. Mount Sinai also features a robust and continually expanding network of multispecialty services, including more than 45 ambulatory practices throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island.
It has more than 40 clinical and academic relationships with other local health care organizations. Mount Sinai physicians can be found in more than 300 community locations throughout the New York metropolitan area. With an extraordinary array of resources for the provision of compassionate, state-of-the-art care, the Mount Sinai Health System is poised to identify and respond to the health-related needs of the diverse populations we serve.
Jack Martin was a beloved business executive who died of Polio at the age of 34. After a weekend country outing in 1950, Jack came home to Manhattan with a bad cold. Two days later, he entered the hospital. Two days after that, he died of infantile paralysis–a quick acting infectious disease that weakens the muscles and causes inability to move. Widely referred to as Polio, infantile paralysis was common in the U.S. during the late 19th century. The worst epidemics occurred in the 1940s and 50s, before the invention and implementation of the polio vaccine in the 1950s.
Before his passing, Jack had attended New York University (where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and the Psi Chi psychology society), had served as a captain in the coast artillery, and was president of the Embros Curtain Company at 230 Fifth Avenue. A close friend of the Martin family recalled that Jack had “taken his father’s small curtain importing business and turned it into a thriving modern manufacturing operation with a plant at Bush Terminal and a showroom in Manhattan.”
After Jack’s death, his family, friends and associates established The Jack Martin Fund in his memory. Jack’s sister, Mrs. Vita Feldman took charge of the effort to create a memorial by building and maintaining a respirator center–needed to treat polio–at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where Jack Martin was treated. In an interview given with the New York Times in 1953, Mrs. Feldman noted that the organization had already grown to 200 members–all local women, most of whom were mothers committed to conquering Polio.
Once the Fund had $65,000, they consulted The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (NFIP) for guidance on how the funds could be used best.
In partnership with the NFIP – the Jack Martin Fund was able to establish the first respirator center between Miami and Boston. The Jack Martin Polio Clinic was officially opened and dedicated in 1956. The 17 bed facility cost $200,000 to construct and was located on the first floor of Mount Sinai Hospital’s Children’s Pavilion at Fifth Avenue and 100th Street.
The NFIP also helped support the center’s operations once it had opened, as it did for a network of fifteen similar installations used for expanded Polio research throughout the United States.
By the 1960s, the Salk Vaccine had dramatically reduced the need for polio treatment respirator centers. It was at that time that the Jack Martin Fund made the decision to continue to support the Mount Sinai Hospital System in areas that were identified as those with an urgent need for support.
By that time, Gustave Feldman, Vita’s Husband, was the Chairman of the organization and the Fund was able to establish & fund the Adolescent Psychiatry Division at Mt. Sinai in 1960.
Mr. Feldman and the Fund’s early supporters continued to raise funds for the organization by holding an annual Dinner Dance at the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan.
This annual gathering was attended by many well-known New Yorkers with a specific focus on the NYC based Garment industry and dress manufacturing business.
During the following decades the Jack Martin Fund was led & supported by the founder members friends, families and their contemporaries.
Jack Martin has been instrumental in providing support to Mount Sinai that has led to:
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Establishing the largest children’s diabetes clinic in New York City
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Developing a new heart-assist device that eliminates the need for a second major open-heart surgical procedure
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Creating a special clinic for early detection of cancer of the cervix
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Renovating the Mount Sinai Blood Bank
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Establishing a $2 million Jack Martin Endowment Fund to assure a perpetual source of support for medical research and education
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Establishing and naming The Jack Martin Fund Clinic, to provide outpatient care for HIV sufferer
JMF has also funded seminal research in areas including: heart failure, Parkinson’s disease, ileitis and colitis, occupational lung disease and the effectiveness of certain drugs and chemical compounds in patients with Cancer.
In the early 1990’s an annual golf outing replaced the dinner dance and now serves as the primary annual fundraising event.
By the late 1990’s, Jack Martin and Mount Sinai identified the need for a dedicated and focused organization to support the Pediatric Hematology & Oncology Department at the hospital. The fund has been able to provide the Jack Martin Fund Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology with support of in excess of $6 million in the last 15 years. Since its inception, the Fund has now been able to provide gifts totaling more than $36 million to Mount Sinai.
To this day, the organization has stayed true to its Founder’s goals of maintaining and building the organization without the use of any paid employees so that all funds that are raised are able to be used to further the cause of providing support to Mount Sinai and the JMF Division of Pediatric Hematology & Oncology.
Paws & Play
Paws & Play is the facility dog program at Mount Sinai. Professor, Summer and Moby, our beloved facility dogs, are full-time “employees” in the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department. This program pairs Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) with the skills of Certified Child Life Specialists and Licensed Creative Arts Therapists to provide therapeutic interventions for patients, families, staff, faculty and trainees.
Leadership and Advisory Board
Board of Directors
Operating Chairman
Mark Zeller
Chairman
Chris Mongeluzo
Vice Chairmen
Kenny Dichter
Mitchell Grabow
Glenn Reisender
Allan Trompeter
Secretary
Jeffrey Gabel
Officers
President
Chris Mongeluzo
Vice President and Treasurer
Mark Zeller
Secretary
Jeffrey Gabel
Advisory Board
Andrew Blitstein
Adam Cott
Jeff Gabel
Casey Gard
Steven Girgenti
David Greenberg
Jon Halpern
David Kaufman
Gary Malin
Shlomo Mizrahi
Jay Newman
Stephen Nitkin
Glenn Reisender
Gary Rosenberg
Marc Rothschild
Jonathon Schwartz
Michael Schwartz
Gary Spitalnik
Robert Withers
Next Gen
The Jack Martin Fund Next Generation is a vibrant community of young professionals dedicated to carrying forward the legacy of compassion and impact established by the Jack Martin Fund. By combining philanthropy, advocacy, and innovation, we support critical programs that enhance the lives of patients and families at Mount Sinai Health System and beyond.
Through unique fundraising events, volunteer opportunities, and awareness campaigns, the Next Generation group empowers emerging leaders to make a tangible difference while fostering a spirit of community and collaboration. Together, we are ensuring the Jack Martin Fund’s mission continues to thrive for future generations.