Early in her fertility journey, hoping to eliminate a problematic genetic match, Jen Leffel and her husband went to get IVF testing. After getting the necessary bloodwork, Leffel discovered that in addition to the match, she had a low ovarian reserve. What was initially expected to be a several-week treatment turned into one lasting several months.<\/p>\n
Four years ago, that experience morphed into a years-long journey, when Leffel, along with Alyssa Kolatch and Alex Peyser, co-founded the Stardust Fertility Foundation, a nonprofit providing financial support for Jews in the tristate area hoping to start families.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFast forward, after I was pregnant with my third son, all I could keep thinking was, like, who\u2019s helping all these Jewish people have babies that need to do IVF?\u201d Leffel told eJewishPhilanthropy ahead of the gala. \u201cWhether they\u2019re infertile or they want to have the healthiest Jewish baby possible, and they want to eliminate a certain match, like myself, or are cancer survivors or someone with a low sperm count, who is helping them afford this treatment that is just exorbitantly expensive?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, four years \u2014 and 31 babies \u2014 later, Stardust hosted its fourth annual gala, drawing 300 well-turned-out people to Chelsea Piers for drinks and dinner. Unlike many Manhattan philanthropy galas, many of the attendees of this candlelit soir\u00e9e were young children, including some born with the help of the foundation\u2019s grants (the candles were kept to high surfaces).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Honored at the event with the foundation\u2019s \u201cStardust Trailblazer Award\u201d was Sandye Rosenbloom Rudnitsky, the first person in the United States to use a gestational surrogate, joined later on the stage by her daughter, Jill. Rudnitsky was also involved in the court case that led to \u201cmother\u201d being legally defined as the party that provides the genetic material, not necessarily the one that gives birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince Jill\u2019s birth, thousands of families have realized their dream of having children by gestational surrogates. After making medical history, we made legal history when we petitioned the court challenging the definition of motherhood,\u201d Rudnitsky said. \u201cI am listed as \u2018mother\u2019 in Jill\u2019s birth certificate. When I look at Jill, I remember the heartbreak, perseverance and struggle it took to have her, but I also see hope and joy. I remember. I see what can be accomplished with love. Science, faith and one beautiful egg.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since its inception, the foundation \u2014 whose name comes from blessings by God to make the Jewish people as numerous as the stars in the sky and the dust of the earth\u00a0\u2014 has dispensed $2 million in grants to some 100 recipients. Those recipients range, said Leffel, from young straight couples needing IVF or IUI treatments, to LGBTQ couples seeking a surrogate, to women who haven\u2019t \u201cyet met Mr. Right\u201d\u00a0 but want to raise a Jewish baby on their own, said Leffel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut with fertility in general, it doesn\u2019t translate into a baby, right? Because, you know, there\u2019s a 1 in 4 chance of miscarriage,\u201d Leffel told eJP ahead of the event.<\/p>\n