Dr. Michael and Marlene Nissenblatt address the crowd of more than 300 who came to honor them at Temple B’nai Shalom’s recent “Spirit of Giving” gala in Manalapan. EAST BRUNSWICK — Temple B’nai Shalom recently honored Dr. Michael and Marlene Nissenblatt during its “Sweetness of Giving” gala.
Michael Nissenblatt has been named as a “top doctor” in surveys by magazines such as “New Jersey Monthly” and “New Jersey Life,” and Discovery Health Channel’s “Mystery Diagnosis” recently showcased his diagnostic skills. The Nissenblatts are longtime members of Temple B’nai Shalom in East Brunswick, and at the Nov. 22 gala, the community, along with Nissenblatts’ family, friends, colleagues and patients, thanked them for making a difference in the lives of many people. Proceeds from the event, held at the Excelsior in Manalapan, support the temple as well as the Aubrey Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research.
Nissenblatt is a clinical professor of medicine at the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; associate director of medical oncology at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital; and director of the Central Jersey Oncology Center. He is the winner of dozens of awards and recognitions; a published author; sought-after speaker and presenter; and past president, chair or member of organizations and boards in New York, New Jersey and Middlesex County, including the New Jersey Oncology Society and American Cancer Society. Together, Michael and Marlene Nissenblatt are among the top fundraisers for the American Cancer Society.
Rabbi Eric Milgrim of Temple B’nai Shalom, delivered the gala invocation.
“Our lives are filled with mitzvoth — righteous obligations and deeds that help in ‘Tikun Olam’ — fixing the world,” Rabbi Milgrim said. “Each of us, in our own way, does that which we can to help make our communities and our world a better place for all. [Tonight] we are honoring two people, Marlene and Michael Nissenblatt, for their ongoing dedication to humanity and humankind.”
Among the guests at the gala were Rabbi Bennett Miller of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick; Rabbi Yacov Hilsenrath of Highland Park Conservative Temple; Rabbi Jeff Glickman, Michael Nissenblatt’s brother-in-law, of Temple Beth Hillel, South Windsor, Conn.; Rev. Loretta Stevens of the Community House of Prayer in Newark; East Brunswick Mayor William Neary; and Mayor-Elect David Stahl.
Kim Chatlos and Julie Rosenblatt delivered remarks at the event. Nissenblatt treated Chatlos’ parents as they battled different cancers at the same time — at one time occupying rooms on the same oncology floor at Robert Wood Johnson.
“It was Michael Nissenblatt’s gentleness and medical wisdom that saved my mother’s life,” Chatlos said. “His almost magical ability to comfort and calm allowed my mother the courage to continue treatment and enabledmy father to enter into his death free of suffering, with less fear and a replenished soul.”
Rosenblatt, a cousin of Nissenblatt, had her leukemia cured by Nissenblatt. She and husband Larr presented the Nissenblatts with an original portrait by artist Peter Max.
Michael Nissenblatt told the packed banquet hall, “What you give me is my living, but what I give you is my life.”
“Thank you for creating that feeling of harmony and insight and inspiration which motivates us,” he said. “Thank you for helping to lend vivid color to the dreams of Temple B’nai Shalom and the Aubrey Fund. You have catalyzed an inert idea into an inspirational moment. You are thus deeply invested in the human act of compassion.”
Marlene said that altruism is “what changes the way we look at ourselves as an abundant people.”
“It alters the way we live. It is what happens when we open our heart, like we are doing tonight, and together taste the sweet fruits of giving,” she said.
For Michael, a typical weekday begins at 4:15 a.m. By 5:30 he’s at the hospital, checking in on patients. Later he’ll be at the East Brunswick or New Brunswick office of the Central Jersey Oncology Center, seeing more patients and conferring with fellow physicians, nurses and dozens of staff. If he’s lucky, Nissenblatt will be home by 8 p.m. for a quick dinner. His next appointment often begins at 9 p.m., when he begins a training run.A
3:33 marathoner, Michael has 10 New York City and three other marathons under his belt. He has been running for 12 years and in that time has raised tens of thousands of dollars for cancer causes through race sponsorships, including for the Aubrey Fund.
Michael’s interest in medicine started at an early age. As a little boy, he heard about “this terrible disease called cancer.” He would walk around with his toy medical bag and say, “Some day I will cure cancer.” As a teenager, he was taken under the wing of Dr. Jerome Reisman, a veterinarian in the Nissenblatts’ hometown of Peekskill, N.Y., a family friend who became his mentor and inspiration.
“One day I watched Jerry do a procedure, opening an animal and exposing its organs. I became sick and dizzy. He told me to sit down and relax. I did, and after that I never felt uneasy again with anatomy,” Michael recalled.
In high school, Michael was a serious student with little time for extracurricular activities. One day in his junior year, a pretty senior, Marlene Mashberg, was sitting outside the cafeteria selling yearbooks, with great sales success.
“But there was one junior who stopped to check me out, but who wouldn’t buy a book,” Marlene said with a laugh. “His name was Michael Nissenblatt.”
While Michael pursued medicine at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, Marlene got a degree in Spanish from Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y., and then went to New York University for a master’s in Spanish.
As Michael was getting ready to take his place as an intern at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Marlene’s father and a friend of Michael’s father decided to play matchmakers — they played very well. The first date was on May 5, 1973; the wedding was on Oct. 28 of the same year. By 1978, two daughters, Paulina and Doree, were born.
Early in his career at Johns Hopkins, Michael recalled, he spent one particular long shift admitting patients, 21 of whom had cancer. What most fascinated Michael was how cancer and its treatments can affect every organ, including the mind. This is when he came to realize that by becoming an oncologist, he was becoming a doctor of the whole person.
“Sometimes it’s just as important to know what kind of picture the patient has of his or her illness as it is to know the disease the person has,” he said. “Comfort and cure is what matters.”
Marlene never imagined back in the 1970s the future she would come to have.
“But everyone has a dream and ours was to help the underserved,” she said. “We’d know a friend who would inherit money or even one who won the lottery, and I’d say to Michael, ‘What would you do if that happened to us?’ And he’d say, ‘I’d do something for humanity. I’d open a cancer center somewhere and you’d be by my side.’”
Marlene has been a Spanish teacher and professional interpreter for a number of years. In 1994, her Spanish skills were put to the test when she went on an eight-day Jewish Cuban aid mission to bring food and humanitarian comfort to a rather sizeable Jewish community in Cuba.
With all the recognition Michael has received, the accomplishment that perhaps makes him most proud is his Challah Foundation, which administers the Challah Bread Fund- Food for the Souls of Cancer Patients. Founded in 1994, the foundation grew out of the simple act of bringing a challah to a Jewish patient one Friday night. Soon he was bringing challot to all his patients as a sign of hope and compassion.
One night a non-Jewish patient, Paula Heyer, who was dying of breast cancer, gave Michael an envelope with three $1 bills in it. She told him that she realized she was not doing well, but over the past year, the reception of the challah had meant so much to her. She asked him to take the $3 and start a foundation to bring challot to all the hospital’s cancer patients. That way, she said, she can reach forward to the next person who occupies this bed and give them hope. Today, the Challah Foundation delivers nearly 7,000 challot a year, or 130 to 160 challot a week, to cancer patients. Since its inception, more than 75,000 challot have been delivered. Volunteers who deliver the bread are people of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths.
The Challah Foundation and its volunteers were recognized during a special Shabbat service at Temple B’nai Shalom in November. During the service, Michael Nissenblatt lauded the volunteers.
“The men and women of the Challah Foundation are symbols of [Paula Heyer’s] strength of character and spirit so necessary to carry on with our lives.” Honorees included Karen Balcerzak, Mark Claxton, Lou and Joy Goldstein, Allan Gunderson, Christina Hopkins, Sheldon Kaplan, Michael Kudela, Pat and John Matera, Lee Mazer, Wally Milbrod, Carol Ann Norland, Arleen Pasmowitz, Rita Peligal, Richard Sherwood, and Karen Slater.

