The Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem
has been partnering with Gift of Life bone marrow registry for the past 10
years to save 36 lives and counting.
Gift of Life works
to cure blood cancer through bone marrow and blood stem cell donation. As part of an initiative with Taglit-Birthright
Israel to expand the registry and give young adults, coming to Israel, an
opportunity to join and potentially save a life, the expansion was tremendous and
the Mayanot Institute of Jewish studies jumped on the bandwagon, not only
offering this to Taglit-Birthright Israel participants but to our long and
short term learning program students, as well.
According to Israel Recruitment Coordinator Halana
Rosenfield, "Mayanot has been a huge supporter of Gift of Life and of the families that we help". Thus far they
have tested over 9128 participants, finding 230 matches and completing 36
lifesaving transplants to date. Donors remain on the registry until their 61st
birthday meaning, this number just keeps rising.
The director of the Mayanot Yeshivah learning program, Rabbi
Chaim Moss, in partnership with Rabbi Mendy Derenע"ה , made this affiliation
with Gift of Life possible.
Rabbi Shlomo Gestetner, director of
the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies remarked, “We educate our students in
the importance of spreading light and doing acts of kindness and this kind of
chesed is the greatest form of giving.”
Danny Sack, director of the
Mayanot Taglit-Birthright division, has been a driving force, pulling this all
together over the years and continuing to make this opportunity a part of the
Israel program.
One of the donors in the registry, Taylor Crampton, was a Taglit Birthright Israel: Mayanot participant.
Taylor joined the registry in 2009 when he was visiting Israel with Mayanot. When
Taylor registered to be a donor, he never expected to be contacted, nearly 7
years later, working as a Pyrotechnic lead at Universal Studios. But when he
received a call asking if he would be willing to donate his stem cells, he says
that he was happy his decision to join the registry was able to do some good
for someone else.
On February 8, 2016, Taylor donated bone marrow to a 44 year
old female with Severe Aplastic Anemia, a disease in which the bone marrow does
not make enough blood cells for the body.
Taylor remarked that he would absolutely donate again if he
was asked to, without a second thought. He says, “if they tell me I’m a match
for someone else then I would donate…to be able to give someone else a chance
at life, there is really no question, if I could do that for another person or
twenty more people I would.”
To people considering donating, “why wouldn’t you?” he says.
It takes seconds and even if you don’t match with someone, at least you made
the effort. To Taylor, “getting swabbed, in a hotel lobby in Jerusalem on a
Mayanot trip, when I was 22 years old, went from something I did just because I
had the opportunity, to one of my proudest moments. Getting swabbed cost you nothing, but could
be the difference between life and death for someone else.” As Rabbi Kasriel
Shemtov, executive director of the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies, has
been quoted saying many times, as related in the Talmud, “Whoever saves one
life its is as if he has saved an entire world”.
Mayanot looks forward to continuing to partner with the Gift
of Life Marrow Registry and hopes that the amazing results of Taylor and
other donors like him, inspires more people to join the registry and
potentially save a life! For more interest.
(Taylor Crampton, in 2009, on his Mayanot trip)
(A bone marrow drive taking place in Jerusalem)