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Feb 7, 2007

bone marrow

Today, in the building where I work, there is a campaign to test people for bone marrow compatibility. The drive is specifically for two young women - a 23 year old student and a 30 year old mother of three.

The drive is being sponsored by Zichron Menachem , Gift of Life , Hadassa Hospital, and Amutat Am Yisrael Hai in an attempt to find a donor for these women. They have introduced a new testing method, imported from the US, which takes just a few minutes with a couple of swabs of saliva from the cheeks, rather than the previous method of testing the blood.

I went down and got myself tested.

We often hear about the great amount of hessed the Haredi community does. And they do a lot of hessed. But let me tell you, other people do hessed too.

There were all types of people in that room being tested; Haredim, secular, dati leumi, etc.. Everybody cares and everybody wants to help. Kol hakavod.

16 comments:

  1. I am very proud of you and the others who went to have yourselves tested. It is a nice change to read about people coming together for a good cause.

    As an interesting sidenote, a friend of mine got tested several years ago when one of his buddies was ill. Unforunately, he was not a match for his friend. However, his information was kept in a registry. About 6 months ago, he received a call informing him that he matched another young cancer patient who he had never met. He immediately agreed to go through with the donation even though the procedure turned out to be more difficult and daunting than he had imagined.

    He said it is both a wonderful and humbling feeling to know that someone is alive today because of a regular guy like him.

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  2. Yes that is a very nice chessed, tizku lemitzvos.

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  3. I forgot to mention that but yes, all the info goes into a database, so even if you are not matched up for this situation, your name might come up as a match in the future for someone else...

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  4. I was tested about twelve years ago. About two years ago I was called for a second blood test to check for a possible match. Nothing came of it.

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  5. A truly stupid post - why the hell does every idiot blogger find it necessary to comment on the hareidim in every single story. It's an obsession that borders on sick. Get over it and live your own stinking life and let go of the hareidim. pathetic!

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  6. My feelings exactly.

    Rafi - stop being a dovbear wannabe and post something worthwhile instead of constantly serving as a silly commentator on the chareidi scene. this nonsense has got to stop.

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  7. That is awesome. It's nice to see how you view things.

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  8. anonymi - a) I could not be a DovBear if I even tried. b) this post did not bash any haredim. It was a reflection of the thought as I went downstairs to go to get mnyself tested for compatibility that I would probably see mostly haredim there. I was curious if I would even see any hilonim. I was very surprised when the majority of people there were not haredi. I know the haredim also came because I asked the guy in charge (a friend of mine) and he told me they were there equally over the course fo the day.
    But what struck me as surprising was that the non-haredi were there as much as the haredi. It surprised me because we always hear about how the haredi world excels at hessed and involvement in these types of organizations (and they even use it as the main excuse not to have to serve in army or some form of national service). And they do. But because I am so used to hearing that, I expected to see a much higher percentage of haredim and a much lower percentage of non-haredim.

    I was not bashing the haredim. Just the opposite. I was pleasantly surprised to see so many non-haredim participating.

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  9. RAI

    CONGRATULATIONS. YOU ARE NOW OICIALLY A REAL BLOGGER, RATHER THAN JUST A GUYS WHO POSTS IN HIS DIARY ONCE IN A WHILE. YOU HAVE BASHERS!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!

    ENJOY YOUR NEW STATUS.

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  10. yeah, but my bashers are anonymous. They could at least make up fake names to use so I could differentiate between the different anonymous posts...

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  11. Rafi,

    As the anonymous who posted first I'd like to clarify my point somewhat.
    I do realize that you're intent wasn't to bash Hareidim - in fact, you made it clear that that they do much chessed etc. However, I think you'll agree with me that there is a very unhealhy obsession on the blogosphere with Hareidim in general that paints them with a really innacurate brush.
    I don't mean that there aren't any problems in their world, but from reading blogs [with a very few exceptions] one gets the impression that they are a pretty horrible lot beset with every form of illness, [cultural, physical, moral and otherwise] known to man. [I exxagerate somewhat here but you get my point.]
    Whether you'll call yourself Hareidi or not, the fact is that you are. Perhaps not the "kind of fundamentalist..." but for the most part, a black hat toting, shomer shabbos, halachah observant...person is hareidi in the eyes of everyone but the few who know how to distinguish between the masses.
    The Chillul Hashem that is perpetrated by the obsessive focus on the Hareidim is massive and does nothing to heal the problems.
    You could have written your post this way and it would have been just as nice:
    "One of the nicest things about living in Israel is interacting with Israeli's of all types who despite certain tensions really do care deeply about one another. The room was filled every kind of israeli from chiloni to hareidi and they were all there for one purpose..."
    Point is: leave out the silly hareidi references throughout.
    That's what anon meant when he referenced DB. Thank God there'll not be many more of those. DB is a twisted individual with unusual sinas yisroel. I don't believe any Goldmeier will ever be smitten with that disease.

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  12. anonymous - point taken.
    On your last point - you obviously do not know all the Goldmeiers ...

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  13. twisted - who says we can't be twisted? I'll show you twisted!!!!!


    actually .... where're danny and meier hiding?



    lol

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  14. anon

    as you explained in your second post, you as well could have written better the first time. you are guilty of your own complaint.

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  15. Shaya,

    you're right. I could have said it nicer. I guess my total disgust at this ridiculous obsession with hareidim is what drove me to write so strongly. I apologize for that.

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  16. shaya, twisted? I'm not twisted. For example, I was going to comment that its not sinas yisroel if its against charedim because after all they are not really practicing judaism anymore. But I thought better of it. I realized that that would be mean and while not untrue could be misconstrued. So I decided not to post such a snide comment. How's that for not twisted?

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