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 ).