His father, Max Cherne, was a compositor, who emigrated from Bessarabia to New York in 1904. Cherne advised nine presidents by serving as a member of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board from 1973 to 1991. He was also a member of the U.S. Select Committee for Western Hemisphere Immigration and the U.S. Advisory Commission on International Educational and Cultural Affairs Cherne was a public policy expert who became aprincipal co-anchor of ABC-TV's All-StarNews, the first hour-long prime time nightly network news broadcast, in the 1952-1953 television season. Whilen o t a ratings success against entertainment programs on NBC and CBS, All-Star News is credited as pointing the way toward the format later used by long- form local news broadcasts in cities across America in the 1960s and beyond and by CNN and other national and international cable news networks since 1980. Cherne served as chairman of the executive committee of Freedom House, es- tablished to advance the struggle for freedom at home and abroad. In 1946, Cherne joined the board of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). In 1951, he became IRC chairman. In 1956, he personally helped deliver medical supplies over the border during the Hungarian uprising. He went to Cuba in the early 1960s, Cambodia in 1975, and Kenya in 1977. In 1984, US President Ronald Reagan awarded Cherne the Medal of Freedom for his "moral passion" in the service of refugees.