2021 was a momentous year for Friends of Sheba in the United States. As of January 1st, 2021, Sheba’s two coastal “Friends of” operations merged into one unified national organization: the American Friends of Sheba Medical Center. The launch was greeted with a new national board, great enthusiasm and a charge from Sheba Medical Center Director General Professor Yitshak Kreiss to grow our American Friends body significantly in the years to come. The challenges of the pandemic did not make the launch year easy, but we didn’t let it slow us down. Active regional boards continued meeting by Zoom in Florida, Texas and Los Angeles. By Q3 we saw that the national organization was on track for a stronger financial performance than the total of the two separate organizations in the prior year. In June, we hosted an exclusive event at an art gallery in Manhattan that proved massively successful! In addition to existing supporters, many new friends came to hear Dr. Eyal Zimlichman give a lecture on how the pandemic catalyzed new medical innovations within Sheba. We succeeded in raising six figures in donations that evening alone, with many people interested in becoming more involved with Sheba in the future. The West Coast did its part as well — a number of successful events were held when Dr.