Area February 13, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 17 Ruth Gerber Cole and Dr. Leonard A. Cole of Ridgewood and Howard Bookbinder of Glen Rock have been appointed or reappointed to the New Jersey-Israel Commission by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The New Jersey-Israel Commission, Local residents named to New Jersey-Israel Commission founded in 1988 under Governor Thomas Kean, promotes the development of trade, cultural activities, and education between New Jersey and Israel. Today, more than 700 New Jersey companies are doing business with Israel and 28 Israeli companies have affiliates in New Jersey. Appointee Ruth Gerber Cole is president of the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations and has served with the Northern New Jersey UJA as a member of the executive board and board of trustees. She has served as president of the Northwest Bergen Chapter of Hadassah, and has been a vice president on the national level. She has served as chair of Hadassah College Jerusalem. In 2011, she completed an eight-year term as the national chair of Hadassah Magazine. She is currently Hadassah’s main representative to the United Nations where Hadassah is an accredited member of the UN Economic and Social Council. In that capacity, she attends numerous meetings, especially those dealing with economic and social development, sustainable development, human rights, public health, education, and issues focused on Israel. She and her family lived on an Israeli kibbutz in the 1980s. Born in Philadelphia, she graduated from Temple University with distinction and earned a master’s degree in human services and counseling and a certificate as a teacher of English as a Second Language. She has lived in Japan, teaching English and studying the Japanese language, and has taught at Bergen Community College. She has also served as a mentor to new teachers in Ridgewood’s school district. Her honors and awards include Hadassah’s Myrtle Wreath, the Bornstein Award, the Israel Bonds Award, the Bergen County High School for Jewish Studies Award, and the Community Builders award. Dr. Cole, a re-appointee to the commission, is an expert on bioterrorism and terror medicine. He holds a doctorate in dentistry from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine. He also holds a doctorate in political science from Columbia University, where he is a board member of the graduate school of arts and science alumni association. He received his BA with highest honors at Berkeley and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received an MA from Columbia, and has received endowments from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Rockefeller. He is an adjunct professor at Rutgers University. Dr. Cole is the author or editor of 10 books, including “The Anthrax Letters: A Medical Detective Story,” and “Terror: How Israel Has Coped and What America Can Learn.” His most recent publication as co-editor is “Local Planning for Terror and Disaster: From Bioterrorism to Earthquakes,” which was published in 2012. He has written numerous articles that have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, The Sciences, and in professional journals. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Institute for CounterTerrorism, a trustee of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and a board member of the Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association. Re-appointee Bookbinder, the first Democrat in recent memory to be elected to the Glen Rock Borough Council, is an accountant with an office in Fair Lawn. He is past chairman of the Cooperation with the Internal Revenue Service and a member of the New Jersey State Tax Committee. He has been involved with the IRS Symposium for employees and tax practitioners for several years. He has lectured on ethics and various tax issues for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. In 2002, he received the Accountant Advocate Award from the Small Business Administration. He is a graduate of Pace University and attended the American Institute of Banking. He has also been an instructor in accounting and taxation at Rutgers University. Bookbinder is the author of “Write-Up Services for Small Businesses,” a book published by the AICPA. He is the past president of the Fair Lawn Lions Club and a Master Mason and treasurer of his lodge. In 1994, he was a volunteer at the World Cup. He was originally appointed to the New Jersey-Israel Commission by Governor Jim McGreevey.