Melissa Cohn honored at Women of Action lunch.

At its annual Women of Action LuncheoN, Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF), the North American organization that underwrites promising cancer research by Israeli scientists, honored Melissa Cohn, CEO of The Manhattan Mortgage Company, the premier residential mortgage company in the country which she founded in 1985. She has since grown it into a $5 billion dollar business.

"IRCF is honoring Melissa because of the energy and passion she brings to the various professional, philanthropic and geographic communities she inhabits with great distinction," noted ICRF executive director Simon Kaminetsky. "She leads by example. Thought she maintains a very hectic professional schedule and is a mother, she manages to devote considerable time and effort to another priority: the needs of others. Melissa understands the devastation of cancer and the importance of providing funds to find the cure."

Graziano de Boni, President and CEO, Valentino, and Linda Fairstein, the best-selling author and former Assistant District Attorney and Women of Action honoree, were Honorary Chairs. The other two "Women of Action" honored by ICRF were Susan Isaacs, the best-selling and award-winning novelist, essayist and screenwriter; and Dr. Lisa Young, nutrition consultant and author of The Portion Teller: Smartsize Your Way to Permanent Weight Loss.

Proceeds from the luncheon, attended by some 400 friends and supporters of ICRF, benefit ICRF's mission "to eliminate cancer for the benefit of the entire world by funding Israel's remarkable scientists." These scientists include the two Israelis who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004, Professors Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Herskho. Forty percent of the scientists funded by ICRF are women.