This article is part of our morning briefing. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox each weekday. Israel has more live kidney donors per capita than anywhere. Here’s why.
Because many believe that Judaism requires a body to be buried whole, Israel is in the bottom half of countries when it comes to organs harvested after death, the type used in most transplants globally. But one Orthodox couple has inspired a sector of Israeli society to become live donors. Our contributing reporter Michele Chabin has the story of Rachel Heber, who was awarded the Israel Prize this spring for her lifesaving work.
Donating as mitzvah: Heber and her husband, Rabbi Yeshayahu Heber, founded the nonprofit Matnat Chaim, Hebrew for “gift of life,” in 2009. The group has facilitated 1,450 live kidney donations, more than 80% percent of them “altruistic” – donated by individuals who had no connection to the recipient. Rabbi Heber, whose own life was saved because of such a donation, died of COVID in 2020. |
Rabbi Yeshayahu Heber and Rachel Heber. (Chaim Meiersdorf) |
Number crunching: To encourage live transplants, Israel passed a law in 2008 that gives donors a month’s salary, and lower health insurance premiums. According to Israel’s Ministry of Health, 656 transplants were carried out in Israel in 2022. Of those about half — 326 — came from living donors. By comparison, about 15% of all organ donations in the U.S. that year were from living donors. Pay it forward: One person’s decision to donate often inspires others. Sari Holtz, a modern Orthodox Jew, donated a kidney through Matnat Chaim when she was 38. Within 18 months, her parents and twin sister also donated kidneys to people they didn’t know. Read the story ➤ |
A Juneteenth celebration in Galveston, Texas, in 2021, days after President Biden declared it a federal holiday. (Getty) |
Opinion | Juneteenth is more than just a second Passover: The day marking the emancipation of Black people from slavery in the United States, which became a federal holiday in 2021, has some things in common with Passover, which marks the Jews liberation from slavery in Egypt. “In neither case was true freedom achieved in a day,” writes our editor-at-large Robin Washington. “The main difference, however, is that Black Americans are still wondering when true equality will be achieved.” Read his essay ➤ Opinion | Rabbi Angela Buchdahl on the worst day of her life, and the redemptive power of wonder: “Rabbis are not usually in the hostage-negotiation business,” Buchdahl told the graduating class at Stanford University this weekend. She was recalling the Shabbat in 2022 when she got a phone call from a rabbi in Colleyville, Texas. He and three of his congregants were being held at gunpoint by a man who thought Buchdahl was the most important rabbi in America and thus could get a fellow Islamist freed from federal prison. She told the graduates that she felt powerless — and that she felt awe. Read her speech ➤ Plus… - On kaddish and kibbitzing: Our editor-in-chief, Jodi Rudoren, found a thriving community — and quite an impressive breakfast spread — at a morning minyan in her hometown.
- Pentagon whistleblower: Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers and died Friday at age 92, “proved that Jewish identity can survive baffling permutations and digressions,” our Benjamin Ivry wrote in an appreciation.
- Field of dreams: In the story of a beleaguered Red Sox fan, David Duchovny may have crafted a perfect Jewish Father’s Day movie, writes our critic Simi Horwitz.
- Test your Jewish news knowledge: A Haredi imposter on TikTok, reparations for Holocaust survivors, and why a famous Israeli couple needed a second wedding. Take our weekly quiz.
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Watch Fauda star Doron Ben-David in new TV series ‘The Lesson’, winner of Israel’s Best Drama Series Award 2023. The series traces a classroom argument between a high school civics teacher (Ben-David) and his student (Maya Landsman) which quickly spirals out of control and puts the two protagonists — and later the whole country — on a collision course. |
WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
Smoke billows during an Israeli army raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Monday morning. (Getty) |
?? Lots to report from Israel this morning: An Israeli military raid on the West Bank city of Jenin erupted into violent clashes Monday, with reports of four Palestinians killed and seven Israeli soldiers wounded as of 7 a.m. ET. … Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handed control of settlement construction to the far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday, retroactively legalizing some remote outposts. … Netanyahu also said he would move forward this week with parts of the controversial plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary. ? The FBI arrested a Michigan 19-year-old suspected of planning a mass shooting in the local Jewish community. Authorities found the name of an East Lansing synagogue in his phone. (CNN) ? Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has “Jewish blood,” other Jews do not consider him to be Jewish and that he is a “disgrace to the Jewish people.” Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt responded that “Putin’s continued focus on this topic and ‘denazification’ narrative is clearly intended to distract from Russia’s war of aggression.” (JTA, Twitter) ?? The Bnei Menashe Jewish community in India has been under attack since ethnic violence broke out in May, with synagogues burned and hundreds displaced. The group, which identifies as members of the “lost tribe” of Menashe, petitioned the Israeli government to expedite their immigration. (JTA) ? Hannah Pick-Goslar became best friends with Anne Frank in 1934. They remained close until their final days at Bergen-Belsen. A new book telling Goslar’s story landed on The New York Times bestseller list on Sunday. Goslar died at 93 in October. (JTA, NYT) ? The Broadway musical Soul Doctor featured the untold story of the relationship between Nina Simone and Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. Now there’s a movie version. (People) Mazel tov ➤ An Arab Israeli beach soccer club won the European championship for the first time, beating Italy in the final match on Sunday in Portugal. Shiva calls ➤ Ben Helfgott, one of two known Holocaust survivors to compete in the Olympics, died at 93. The British weightlifter and Holocaust educator was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2018 … Lisl Steiner, who escaped the Nazis and became a photojournalist known for her intimate portraits of world luminaries including Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, Louis Armstrong, and Fidel Castro, died at 95. |
On this day in history (1951): A Jewish citizen of the Soviet Union was issued an immigrant visa to Israel for the first time. Decades later, in the last quarter of the 20th century, about 1 million Russian speakers made aliyah, adding 15% to Israel’s population.
In honor of World Martini Day, check out this recipe for a chocolate gelt martini. |
A Jewish conversation about Juneteenth: Rabbi Sandra Lawson, the first Black, female and queer rabbi, and Tema Smith, director of Jewish outreach at the Anti Defamation League, chatted with our editor-in-chief last year for the holiday. — Thanks to Tani Levitt and Talya Zax for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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