FUND RAISER
Fashion Industries Guild, Kapors and Mangels Raise $800,000 for Cedars-Sinai
WHO:
Fashion Industries Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
WHAT: 56th annual fundraising gala, honoring Jeffrey and Betsy Kapor and Jay and Kathi Mange
WHERE: Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills
WHEN: September 22
Apparel manufacturers, textile representatives, retailers, attorneys, accountants and finance executives turned out to support the Fashion Industries Guild of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and celebrate this year’s honorees, Betsy and Jeffrey Kapor and Jay and Kathi Mangel.
The Sept. 22 event, held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, raised $800,000 for Cedars-Sinai. The funds will be used to complete the Diana and Steve Marienhoff Fashion Industries Guild Endowed Fellowship in Pediatric Neuromuscular Diseases, which will benefit a partnership between Cedars-Sinai’s Department of Pediatrics and the medical center’s Regenerative Medicine Institute. The fellowship will help fund research and treatment for neurological diseases that affect children, such as spinal muscular atrophy, cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
Dr. Charles Simmons, chair of pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai, said he was reminded of how critical the Fashion Industries Guild is to the medical center. “Without your support, we couldn’t continually make a difference in these children’s lives,” he said. “We stand on the brink of many future successes diagnosing, treating and ultimately preventing these diseases in children.” Howard Leeds, apparel manufacturer and past president of the Fashion Industries Guild, introduced Steve and Diana Marienhoff, longtime guild supporters and owners of Adams Press. “The day they joined [this organization] was a blessing for this organization and the medical community,” he said. “We owe a debt to them for their time and effort.”
Diana Marienhoff said she and her husband were “humbled … that you have deemed us worthy of putting our name on this fellowship that will help the future of medicine for our children and our children’s children.”
Honoree Jeff Kapor, a shareholder of Los Angeles law firm Buchalter Nemer and chair of its Apparel Practice Group, and his wife, Betsy, were introduced by daughter Rachel. “Charity has always been important to us,” Jeff Kapor said. “Charity is an obligation we have to teach our children.”
He told the crowd about his wife—whom he described as “the girl I fell in love with when she asked me out on our first date on Dec. 18, 1970”—and her successful battle against breast cancer. Kapor also told of his wife’s selfless care of a family friend in need of a kidney transplant and dialysis. Vera Campbell, owner of childrenswear line Knitworks, introduced Jay Mangel, a partner with Crowe Horwath LLP Audit Practice, and his wife, Kathi. “Jay and I and his family have a long history together,” said Campbell, who was one of Mangel’s first apparel clients. “His daughters grew out of Knitworks and into Juicy Couture.” Campbell said she tried to find a “kind” quotation about accountants to include in her speech. “There are no kind quotes about accountants,” she joked. “The only quotes worse than those about accountants are those about lawyers.” She lauded Mangel and all accountants as “the backbone of the industry,” praising Mangel for “[keeping] us on the straight and narrow and [serving] as an ethical compass. Thank you, Jay, for 30 years of service.” Mangel’s father was a manufacturer. “I grew up at the cutting tables,” he said.
He praised his wife, Kathi, crediting her support for his success, and concluded with a toast to her: “While we both love our wine and are wine snobs, you are the sweetest glass I want.”
At the gala, Kenny Weinbaum, outgoing president of the Fashion Industries Guild, passed the reins of the organization—and a gavel—to incoming President Jessica Lewensztain.
“The new president has fashion in her veins,” he said. Lewensztain is a manager at Anjac Fashion Buildings, which owns many apparel buildings in the Los Angeles Fashion District, as well as the historic Orpheum Theatre. Lewensztain is the granddaughter of Anjac Fashion’s founder, the late Jack Needleman, and she is the daughter of Steve Needleman, who owns and operates the company today. In addition to Weinbaum and Leeds, past President Eileen Ellis was also in attendance. Past honorees at the event included Lars Viklund (2011), Sandy Richman and Tony Litman (co-honorees in 2009), Barbara Fields (2008), Ken Weinbaum (2006), Moshe Tsabag (2005), Richard Clareman (2002), Ilse Metchek Pola (2001), Steve Maiman (1999), Lonnie Kane (1995), Larry Hansel (1993), and Bruce Corbin (1984).
