‘Bra-Veaux!’ co-chair is breast cancer survivor

By ALAN SMASON

Saturday night’s second annual “Bra-Veaux!” fundraiser for breast cancer awareness and research will have special meaning for co-chair Judge Miriam Waltzer.  Waltzer, who co-chairs with Barbara Kaplinsky, was the first woman elected to a Criminal Court judgeship in Orleans Parish. She accepted the position of the Greater New Orleans Chapter of Hadassah art deco event because it has much meaning to her as a survivor of breast cancer.

Waltzer recalls how she and her attorney husband Bruce were forced to flee to Dallas due to Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in 2005. With family scattered and a home devastated by flood waters, the couple elected to stay in Texas until two years ago.

“I came back from Dallas in 2012 and to my horror I discovered that I had breast cancer,” she recalls. “I had a mastectomy in 2013.”

Waltzer takes that negative experience and spins it into a positive. “But G-d was kind to me,” she continues. “I didn’t have to take chemotherapy or radiation. I did not have to take those pesky pills. It seemed to me with those blessings I have to give back.”

The retired judge says she is especially pleased to know how the money raised will go towards the Hadassah Hospitals in Israel and their ongoing programs and research in breast cancer prevention.

“I know the kind of research Hadassah has been conducting,” she notes. “Every hospital in Israel –they accept Jews, Arabs – it doesn’t matter. Now is the time to really help the hospitals and advance their first rate research.

The event will be held at the recently renovated Lakefront Airport (formerly Shushan Airport) at 7:00 p.m. Messina’s Caterers will provide food throughout the night.