He was truly a human being with all its admirable qualities – compassion, kindness, honesty, truthfulness, and he never gave up, whether he was trying to build bridges between black and white communities, or building bridges within the health community between standard therapy and complimentary therapy. It is little wonder that the widest cable bridge ever built carries his name – The Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge(Zakim Bridge, for short) If you are in Boston, you just can’t miss it. His myeloma diagnosis did not slow Lenny down one bit in his effort toward social justice. Nothing could slow Lenny down.

 

At some time during our years with myeloma, we all wonder what will be happening to us during the last month of our lives. But here’s what 46-year old Lenny was up to late in 1999: As 16-year director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). He made a presentation to the sixth annual Team Harmony Program which he began 6 years earlier and brought thousand of young people together with professional sports stars from mainly the Boston area. He wanted these young people to see true heroes and hear the need for keeping their lives focused and productive. Along with that, he wanted to show that there was no need for racial prejudice on the path to success. He said, “These kids have to know that if they stop a racial slur or a bigoted joke, when they stand up for the rights of anyone, they are being as heroic as anyone, they are being as heroic as any great athlete.”

 

During his last days during those final four weeks, he made the fourth round of awards to the “Lenny Fund.” which was started in his honor just after his diagnosis in late 1994. At first, a Chair in social action was proposed for him at Harvard, but in typical Lenny-style he said he would rather have the money set aside so that it could help community groups, even the small ones. He wanted his name to live on in a more basic way. In its first year, the Lenny Fund distributed $50,000 worth of grants, during 1999, this last month of Lenny’s directorship, it gave grants that totaled $279,000.

 

And if that weren’t enough activity during that month, he went to Rome with the Boston Cardinal to participate in a Catholic-Jewish pilgrimage which he and the Cardinal founded. While in Rome, he was named Knight of St. Gregory by Pope John Paul II – one of the highest honors that could be given to lay people by the Catholic Church, and of course, he took pictures with the Pope. Lenny said, “I am in pictures taken with the Pope, Bruce Springsteen and the Dalai Lama. Now, I’ve got to bring them together. He was an avid Bruce Springsteen fan.

 

And he still found time through that last month, to continue his work with the “World of Difference Institute,” which had as one major goal to reach young people who have been convicted of hate crimes. The effort focused upon changing the behavior and attitude of these youths and turning them into activists for violence protection through education and community service. The hope was that if these young people could see the trauma imposed on their victims, they might be sensitized to their own actions.

 

And last but not least, he continued to move forward for a blend of complimentary and traditional treatments for cancer patients. Ever since he was diagnosed with myeloma, he wanted to use integrated therapy, but programs were limited. Lenny was going to change that, and for myeloma patients, his center for integrated therapies is now among there at the top of his legacies along with him being a compassionate fighter and doer. For those with this disease, his efforts to develop a holistic approach to cancer treatment may become more tangibly important than to see his name on the great beautiful bridge that spans from Boston to Charlestown.

Now, that is a month’s worth of work for anyone. He died in December 1999 - just about five years after the “official” diagnosis of myeloma. His background as a youth growing up in a small New Jersey town which wasn’t especially fond of Jews helped fuel his own blend of social consciousness and activism. He was only among a small hand full of Jewish teenagers, and much of the town viewed them strangely. But that did not keep Lenny from moving along in his life. His enthusiasm with life and that “anything-good-can-be-made-to-happen” philosophy convinced him that he could invite Mickey Mantle and Sandy Koufax to his Bar Mitzvah. They didn’t show, but he did have posters. Regardless of being the recipient of ethnic slurs, he ran for president of the eighth grade class, and he won. Later he joined the football team, but was benched when he refused to play on Yom Kippur, the Jewish High Holiday. During those teen years, he traveled to Israel and he saw how social conscience was very much rooted in people of faith. That trip convinced him that this is what he wanted to do in his life – help others who need that help and build relationships among diverse groups.

He went onto American University, and then to law school in Boston where he became student president and soon after began working in democratic politics for Massachusett’s Governor Michael Dukakis who was running for re-election. When Dukakis lost and his job ended, he went to join the ADL in 1978. By 1983, at age 30, he became the organization’s youngest Regional Executive Director. While at the helm of the ADL organization, he forged the “World of Difference” campaign, the “Team Harmony” program, and even a Black-Jewish seder which was later expanded to a Catholic-Jewish seder. At first only a few people showed up, but in just a few short years, attendance exceeded 600 guests. Then of course, there was the “Lenny Fund,” too. During the years as ADL Director, his tires were slashed, and he received written death threats – but that didn’t slow him down, not even the greatest death threat of all – myeloma.
 

In October 1994, he had taken a routine blood test as part of a physical, and the blood work showed unusual counts – does that sound familiar? He sought out Dr. Ken Anderson who at that time was well on his way in establishing himself as one of most active and productive myeloma specialists in the world. At first the treatment was not especially aggressive. But after experiencing increasing pain in early 1995, it was time to crank up the treatment a few notches. Zakim was prepped for an autologous stem cell infusion. The process meant isolation for at least several weeks, and that might have been Lenny’s biggest challenge – being isolated from people. His wife, Joyce, was by his side during the procedure, but his three children had more restrictions. Two good friends were always with him, even when he was semiconscious, and for Lenny their presence made a huge difference for him. During the time of the transplant, among his many concerns was whether he would be alive to see the Bar Mitzvah of his now 12-year old Josh. Of course he was. He came out of the transplant weak and trimmed down, but no less active. His weight went from 180 pounds to 165. At the Bar Mitzvah, he went on stage, kicked up his heels, and with his son, sang “Mustang Sally.” 

During the months and weeks leading up to the transplant he believed that there was more than just chemo that he needed to be as strong as he could. After the initial diagnosis, he began to feel serious chest pains, and that led him to a nearby meditation center where after a few sessions, the pain disappeared. He was familiar with such therapy while in college, but as the years passed, his obligations increased, and of course, he wanted to be with his family, too, so he didn’t have the time to continue with it. But now, he was making time for that, and he was convinced that traditional medicine just did not incorporate enough of these complimentary treatments. He set out to change that for himself, and in the process for many others. He went to see an expert on complimentary treatments, Dr. David Eisenberg of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, just across the street from Dana-Farber, and he showed Lenny what he had learned through his research on alternative therapies. He showed him the importance of exercise, meditation, acupuncture, guided imagery, therapeutic massage, drinking water, using herbs and vitamins, having good nutrition and sleep. Lenny felt he could accomplish most of these efforts – except more sleep, especially now when he believed his life could be cut short and there was so much he wanted to accomplish. For Lenny, there was rest, and there was sleep. More sleep didn’t necessarily provide more rest, and that one should become as active as possible and not sleep for long hours. Five or six hours of sleep proved ample rest for Lenny. Of course, Eisenberg never meant that Lenny should abandon his traditional treatment, and it was important for him to confer with his doctor, Ken Anderson, before making any moves. While nutritional changes, vitamins and herbs are important, these can contradict the traditional treatments, and as Lenny pointed out, “Why go through the pain and suffering of a transplant if you are doing something that will work against it?” From the start of his therapies, he went to Cynthia Maderios of Dana-Farber. She eventually became the director of the Zakim Center for Integrated Medicine. He wanted Dana-Farber to pull all the pieces of treatment together. Maderios said that Lenny was the type of person who if “You gave him a list of ten reasons for not being able to accomplish something, he would say, ‘OK, when do we start?’ His enthusiasm was infectious.” They set up a family and patient advisory council to help forge the integrated center, and out of the council came the Zakim Center, but while the pieces were being put together, it wasn’t until right after his death that the center was dedicated. In addition to providing clinical services, the center performs research funded by the National Cancer Institute – the purpose of the research is to convince the medical community that complimentary treatments are helpful in providing a better quality of life, possibly extending survival, and making the course of rigorous traditional treatment less daunting. Maderios said that Lenny’s complimentary preps before his transplant helped him deal with it far better. And he himself speaks of how acupuncture helped in many ways including curing a severe attack of conjunctivitis that traditional treatment wasn’t reaching. Of course, these are anecdotal testimonials, and if integrated therapies were to become widely accepted to the point that insurance carriers would be willing to provide reimbursement, then clinical trials are absolutely necessary. And that was one of Lenny’s goals – to have insurance cover the costs of these old but revived treatments. Even today, most of the cost is carried by the patient, and only some major haggling through insurance companies could get you somewhere. It took two and a half years of letter writing on the part of Ken Anderson to get some reimbursement for Lenny’s complimentary treatments. The procedure is too tall a task for most, but still the Zakim Center is a success. It provides nutritional counseling with professional dieticians, massage, Reki, and even music therapy – a session that I attended several years ago, but I wound up playing the piano. Maderios explains that none of this is frivolous, “It relieves stress, pain, anxiety and helps patients handle the specific harsh cancer treatments. The staff is catching on.” She feels that  Lenny may be gone, but the future of his center will carry on, “The center is here to stay.” Hundreds of patients take advantage of the center, and over a million dollars have been given to the Center for its programs. Even on the very day that he died in early December 1999, he was a believer of the benefits of this therapeutic approach. He was receiving touch therapy, he had a rabbi and his family by his side – very important elements of complimentary treatment, and he had his boom box going with his favorite Bruce Springsteen tunes. By the way, Bruce Springsteen was on hand for the dedication of the Zakim Bridge in 2002.  Joyce Zakim, Lenny’s wife said, “To hear Bruce Springsteen sing just made me feel that Lenny was here with us on the bridge. I just felt his presence so much. Lenny loved Bruce’s music and really did live his words.” Springsteen performed on his harmonica and guitar and joked, “”If I knew this bridge was so big, I would have brought my whole band.” It sure is a big bridge. It is 1457 feet long, spans the Charles River, and itself is the widest cable-stayed bridge in the world with towers reaching 270 feet high. What an impressive structure, but just a shadow of an even greater man whose greatness really never stood taller than during his five-year battle with myeloma.