Opinion
The Greatest Gift
N
New York/JTA
day points up the uneven pace of
donations.
othing should surprise the med-
The statistics, likewise, tell
ical staff of a big hospital, but
two stories. In 2008, there were
last July the Hadassah Medical
28,000 organ transplants in
Center in Jersualem had an extraordinary
the United States. Some 16,000
48-hour period in which surgical teams
involved kidneys — an impres-
performed two heart and three kidney
sive number until you compare
transplants. The most dramatic case was
it to the 80,000 Americans on
that of a 42-year-old mother of six who
waiting lists for kidneys. Many
had been living for a year with an artificial of them will die waiting.
heart and who finally had a human donor.
Our medical expertise is run-
As a nurse, nothing is more remarkable
ning faster than our ability to
to me than how far organ transplantation
sign up donors — both living
has come just during the course of my
donors for kidneys and bone marrow, and
professional career.
people who formally register to be postmor-
When I was in nursing school, kidney
tem donors. It's not for lack of generosity.
transplantation was in its infancy and the
Every organ donor is a tribute to the
first drugs to treat acute rejection were
most generous instincts of the human
being introduced. Dr. Christiaan Barnard's
spirit. But to be a donor, one needs one
first successful heart transplant was still in more characteristic: awareness.
the future.
Millions of generous people are not
But as far as organ transplantation has
aware. Some avoid thinking about the issue.
come, there is still work to be done. Even
Others resist becoming donors out of a
that extraordinary two-day period at the
traditional mindset they believe is rooted
Hadassah Medical Center suggests chal-
in religion, even though religious authori-
lenge as much as achievement. The surge
ties from virtually every denomination and
or dearth of healthy organs on any given
every faith have endorsed the life-giving
practice of organ donation.
Hadassah, alone and in part-
nership with other health-ori-
ented organizations, has made
a priority of awareness. For
10 years, we have sponsored
educational programs on the
importance of organ donations.
We do this not only in our
chapters, but also as outreach
to the wider Jewish community
and the general public. We also
have done tissue typing for
potential bone marrow donors
at our annual conventions.
Every culture reserves a special place of
honor for lifesavers and that is exactly what
donating an organ makes you. According to
Jewish tradition, whoever saves a life is con-
sidered as if he saved an entire world.
In fact, saving one life by donating an
organ may indirectly save others.
Increasing the voluntary donor pool
would go a long way toward ending illegal
trafficking in human organs. This criminal
trafficking has not spared the Jewish corn-
munity. Many of us have been shocked in
recent months over news reports of indi-
vidual Jews involved in the practice.
Paid donors are typically people from
poor countries who give up a kidney or
part of their liver under substandard
surgical conditions and with little or
none of the post-operative attention they
need. Those who trade in human organs
exploit not only the poor but also the sick
— those willing to pay anything to save
the life of a loved one.
If you haven't thought about becoming
an organ donor, now is a good time to
start. If you want more information, or if
you have any hesitation, a world of infor-
mation is waiting for you. Two especially
good Web sites that answer virtually any
question you can imagine are those of the
Mayo Clinic in Rocheser, Minn., and of the
New York Organ Donor Network.
The science to save lives is in place and
improving every day, and the world has
plenty of generous people. It's up to all of
us to make sure that awareness matches
generosity. I I
Nancy Falchuk is national president of
Hadassah: The Women's Zionist Organization
of America.
Envoy's Formidable Task
Washington/JTA
yeshivah student
the weapons that
was assaulted by
would enable them
annah Rosenthal, President
anti-Semitic thugs
to do that — they
Obama's nominee for the post
on Rosh Hashanah
should be taken as
of special envoy to monitor and
and a synagogue was
seriously as anti-
combat anti-Semitism, certainly has her
daubed with swasti-
Semitic leaders in
work cut out for her.
kas on Yom Kippur.
the 1930s should
According to the latest report from the
The position
have been taken.
Organization for Security and Cooperation of U.S. envoy to
When Arab
in Europe, hate crimes remain "a seri-
monitor and com-
regimes teach their
ous problem" in the OSCE's 56 member
Gregg Rickman and Rafael
bat anti-Semitism
schoolchildren to
states. Yet, incredibly, only eight of the 56
Medoff
was established in
hate Jews while
governments provided the OSCE with data 2004 in response
Special Commentary
glorifying violence
on recent anti-Semitic incidents in their
to the proliferation
and denying the
countries. Clearly, there are regimes that
of anti-Jewish hatred around the world.
Holocaust ever took place, they must be
hope to preserve their country's image by
The late Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif, later
challenged — especially when the United
whitewashing local anti-Semitism.
joined by Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio,
States is in a position to use its aid and
There can be no doubt that anti-Semitism and Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., initiated the
influence with those regimes as leverage.
continues to manifest itself across the globe
legislation that created the position. Lantos,
When Holocaust deniers claim that
and in a wide range of forms. In Sweden,
a Holocaust survivor, saw echoes of a dark
the Nazis' slaughter of 6 million Jews is a
a prominent newspaper recently accused
past in our own era, both in the spread of
myth circulated by an international Jewish
Israelis of kidnapping Arabs in order to
anti-Semitism worldwide and the failure of propaganda machine — that, too, must be
harvest their organs. In Honduras, political
Western democracies to speak out against it. recognized as anti-Semitism.
figures and pundits are blaming Jews for
Obviously, there are vast differences
When extremists cynically manipulate
the country's political crisis. In Hungary
between the Hitler period and our own
United Nations forums to blame Israel and
and Austria, far-right extremists are exploit- era. At the same time, it is important to
"Zionists" for all the ills of the world, they
ing the democratic system to significantly
recognize today's serious dangers.
must be denounced.
increase their representation in parlia-
When Iranian leaders threaten to anni-
When fanatics in any country try to mask
ment. And here at home, in Edison, N.J., a
hilate Israel — and actively try to develop their anti-Semitism as opposition to Israel
H
40
December 17 • 2009
ifki
or Zionism, they must be exposed. The U.S.
position on this question, as articulated in
last year's report by the State Department's
Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-
Semitism, is that "the demonization of Israel
or vilification of Israeli leaders, sometimes
through comparisons with Nazi leaders,
and through the use of Nazi symbols to
caricature them, indicates an anti-Semitic
bias rather than a valid criticism of policy
concerning a controversial issue'
Some of the governments that Ms.
Rosenthal investigates surely will lean
on her to go easy on them in her reports.
She may find herself under pressure from
U.S. government officials who believe that
having friendly relations with a particular
regime is more important than speaking
out against anti-Semitism in that country.
We hope she resists these pressures and
stands up for those who were denied such
help during the darkest of period in human
history, the Holocaust. If she does, she will
have served her office well. LI
Gregg Rickman served as the first U.S. special
envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. Rafael
Medoff is director of the David S. Wyman Institute
for Holocaust Studies (Wymanlnstitute.org ).