updated
10-11-2007

Eli Wallach was born in Brooklyn in 1915; the Wallach family were virtually the only Jews in a tough Italian neighborhood. Many years later, he was cast to play Murder Inc.'s notorious crime boss, Albert Anastasia, in a television drama. Being schooled as a "method actor" at New York's famous Actors Studio (other alumni included Marlon Brando, Julie Harris, Karl Malden, John Forsythe, Maureen Stapleton, Patricia Neal, and his future wife, Anne Jackson), Eli was uncertain how to play the gangster, because he had no "feel" for the character. He researched hard, asking lots of people what Anastasia was like and how he had become such a gangster. He even visited the judge who, as a young lawyer, had defended and won two acquittals for Anastasia. Alas, the judge could give him no insights. It wasn't until he was in Hollywood, about to shoot the production, when someone suggested that he look at a film of Anastasia's brother Tony being questioned by the Kefauver Crime Commission in Washington. When Tony was asked where he presently lived, he said "167 Union Street." Eli suddenly knew exactly how to play Albert Anastasia, because he had been raised at 166 Union Street.

Eli took to acting early, appearing in his first play at fifteen. After receiving his B.A. from Texas University ("an oil-rich school that charged only $30 a year for out-of-state applicants") and an MS in Education at CCNY (fortunately, he flunked the teacher's certification test), he set out to become a professional actor. Before he could make any headway, he was drafted into the army on the eve of America's entry into World War II, where he rose to the rank of captain in the army's Medical Administrative Corps. After the war, Eli became one of the original members of the famed Actors Studio in New York City, gradually progressing from small to major roles on Broadway. His first film was in 1956, as the star of Tennessee Williams' controversial Baby Doll, directed by his friend Elia Kazan. Since then, Eli has acted in over seventy movies, the latest being Mama's Boy, a comedy with Diane Keaton and Jeff Daniels slated for release sometime around December.

In a career that has spanned over sixty-seven years, Eli has played many different roles, including a rabbi, psychiatrist, cotton gin manager, tow truck driver, liquor store owner, and most frequently, gangsters and Western heavies. In 1986, he was cast in the British docudrama production of The Impossible Spy as the head of Israel's secret intelligence agency, the Mossad. Known only as "Yakov," Eli's character recruited a young Arabic-speaking Israeli named Eli Cohen, to impersonate a Syrian businessman who cultivated contacts within the highest echelon of the Syrian government. Before he was exposed, arrested and hanged for espionage, Cohen had risen to third in line for the Syrian presidency. It also allowed him to tour the strategic Golan Heights, whose hidden artillery battery locations he secretly passed onto the Mossad. Forty years ago, in June 1967, that vital information helped the Israelis win the Six-Day War.

Harvey Chertok is the President of Quartet International, Inc., a worldwide TV production and distribution company, Scholarship Education Co-Chair for the New York Chapter of the National Academy Of Television Arts And Sciences; NATAS National Trustee; and Instructor for "The Business Of Television" classes at New York University.

He was Television Advertising/Promotion/Publicity Vice President for 16 years with Time and Warner. and has produced three movies: The Impossible Spy (John Shea, Eli Wallach) with BBC-TV, The Great Charlie Chan for Warner Brothers, and 7 Surprizes with the National Film Board Of Canada. Other production/distribution credits include such television series as Hermitage Masterpieces, an extraordinary nine-hour art history series seen on PBS, and Over The Edge, a new reality TV series now airing in over forty countries.

At the New York Chapter/NATAS, Harvey is also on the Board of Governors and the Silver Circle Awards Committee. He formerly served as Chairman of the Silver Circle Awards (1995 & 1996), and was a National Trustee (1981-83 and 2003-04), and a member of the Board Of Governors from 1981-2001. Harvey is also a Judge for the International Emmy Awards.

Richard Berge is a documentary filmmaker who has made films for PBS, Showtime, A&E Biography, Omnimedia and the California Arts Council. He was a writer, producer, and director of The Rape of Europa (2006), the documentary film adaptation of Lynn Nicholas's award-winning history of the fate of art during the Third Reich and Second World War. Before producing The Rape of Europa, he served for two years as writer and field producer for SPARK!, a weekly television series for KQED about the arts in the San Francisco Bay Area. With director Barry Levinson, he produced Yesterday's Tomorrows (2000), a feature-length documentary for Showtime that examines the human obsession with predicting the future. The film is featured in a Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition (SITES) that continues to tour the United States. He line produced Sing Faster: The Stagehands' Ring Cycle (1999) in association with producer/director Jon Else and Oregon Public Broadcasting. The film was awarded the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival and an Emmy for best cultural documentary. He was production manager of In Search Of Law And Order (1998), a documentary series about the American juvenile justice system for PBS and Channel 4, and he was production coordinator for Cadillac Desert (1997), the landmark documentary series produced for PBS by Jon Else about history of the quest and struggle for water in the American West.

Jeff Roman is a native of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  He is a graduate of the University of Vermont, where he was active within the Jewish student community.  Previously, Jeff worked for Citizens Bank and, most recently, Jeff was a participant in Project OTZMA, a ten-month volunteer and leadership development program in Israel.  During his time in Israel, Jeff did research for the Post-Holocaust and Anti-Semitism Department of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, a leading think-tank headed by Dore Gold, a former ambassador of Israel to the United Nations. 

As the Assistant Director of the Anti-Defamation League for Eastern Pennsylvania/Delaware, Jeff has many responsibilities, including the handling of discrimination complaints and anti-Semitic incidents.  Jeff works closely with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, training them about hate crimes and extremist threats.  Jeff has spoken in many public forums representing ADL, including lectures at Millersville University, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the Allentown Jewish Federation, and Penn State Abington.  Jeff is also a trained facilitator for ADL’s Confronting Anti-Semitism Program.

While living in California,, David did considerable work with the Anti-Defamation League and was chairman of ADL's civil rights committee for that region. David has served as president of Amos Lodge, B'nai B'rith, and currently chairs the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of Northeast Pennsylvania. David also serves on the board of Jewish Federation of NEPA executive committee and the board of The  Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition. He is curently the President of Scranton's Temple Israel, and secretary of Congregation Bichor Cholem, Old Forge.

Attorney Fallk has written extensively about issues involving the Mid-East, anti-Semitism, civil rights, and current issues in law including medical malpractice. His articles have been printed in various publications in both Pennsylvania and California. He and his wife, Dr. Rhonda Fallk, reside in Clarks Summit with their daughter, Rebecca Sarah, and son, Murray Stuart.