Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

David and Helen Jaffe and Jetblue Honored at Fare Food Allergy Ball

“Our family is committed to creating national food allergy awareness and to find a cure” Karen Mandelbaum Gala Co Chair of the 19th Annual Food Allergy Ball and grandmother of three with life-threatening food allergies told the black tie guests at the Waldorf-Astoria. “Since we met last year, two people died from food allergy episode—a NJ high school senior and a sophomore at Dartmouth. They had nothing in common…but were food allergic. Senseless deaths …we want to make sure this does not happen again and again.”

The event honored Helenand David Jaffe each of whose four children has different food allergies. Helen Jaffe recalled how in “1995 when my children started elementary school they could not address food allergies.. Four mothers and I went to work— Food allergies affect one in 13 kids in the U.S.—Teachers and staff were not happy to take time out of their busy day to learn about food allergies—but over the course of two years a group of parents working with teachers and administrators established the first allergy policy at the Westport Public Schools.”

“To see your child go into anaphylactic shock becomes indelibly carved into your memory,” said Gala Co-Chair Lianne Mandelbaum as she described a memory with what could have had an unthinkable outcome. “I recently returned from Rome where I made a presentation on travel…. JetBlue Airways has demonstrated its commitment to accommodating the food allergy community…. After a bad personal experience on another carrier, they gave my family back its dignity. In addition to not serving peanuts, Jet Blue provides passengers with snacks from a dedicated nut-free manufacturer…allows pre-boarding and will create a buffer zone upon request.”

“As many of you know, there is no ER thousands of feet up in the air…yet many airlines still only carry unlabeled vials of epinephrine. JetBlue goes a step further than that,” said Lianne. “They carry Epinephrine injectors on every plane so they are prepared for an emergency.”

Among the joys of a FARE dinner gala is that the menu itemizes all the ingredients. This evening’s gala dinner was designed by The Fare Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Michelin-starred James Beard award-winning Chef Gabriel Kreuther whose first course [Butternut Squash Panna Cotta] was comprised of 36 ingredients! The alternative was Beet Carpacio (17 ingredients), another option entrée “Red Wine Poached Beef Tenderloin” included 21 ingredients.

Among the gowned and black tie guests—Honorary Dinner Chair Sharyn T. Mann one of the founders of the Food Allergy Initiative Organization that evolved into FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education).

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.