Israel
Ezer Mizion’s Bone Marrow Registry celebrates saving 3100 lives!
Special to The Jewish Post & News
Ezer Mizion is Israel’s largest medical support organization. The crown jewel of the organization is the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Registry, the largest Jewish registry in the world with over 950,000 potential bone marrow donors. The size of the registry allows the organization to facilitate over 30 life saving bone marrow transplants every month of the year in Israel, the USA and around the world. In the month of March alone there were 38 lifesaving transplants!
Ezer Mizion has been able to grow the registry because of a landmark agreement and very special relationship with the IDF, a relationship the army does not have with any other organization: Every new army recruit is offered the option to be swabbed at the Ezer Mizion clinic at the Bakum induction center.
Fifty-sixty thousand new genetically diverse, young and healthy IDF soldiers are added to the registry each year with over half a million soldiers in the registry today!
Twenty years ago, there was an abysmal 8% chance of finding a bone marrow donor for a Jewish patient; today, because of the Ezer Mizion registry, this number has risen to an astounding 76%.
Shulamit is a 51 years old mother of 5 who is a twice breast cancer survivor. In 2015, she was diagnosed with leukemia.
Her doctors were concerned that having been through chemo twice already she may not survive a third time, but they decided to take the chance and look for a bone marrow donor. In the meantime, her son, who was living in Holland at the time, returned to Israel to help manage her medical care, including large numbers of blood donations.
“I had come to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t see my daughter drafted into the army, dance at my children’s weddings or meet my grandchildren.”
All that changed when a soldier named Barak Schneider came into her life.
After some time, a match was found. Barak, a soldier in the IDF, had joined the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Registry when he was drafted into the army. He joined the army as an active athlete, having been Israel’s taekwondo champion and represented Israel in competitions around the world. He had only been in the army for half a year when he got the call that he was a match, but he didn’t hesitate at all.
Barak said, “My mother was concerned at first, but she calmed down when she realized that stem cell donation is a much simpler process these days than it used to be.”
Within two weeks Barak donated bone marrow to Shulamit and she began the process of recovery.
According to international law, the donation has to be kept anonymous for the first year. Then, after the patient heals they can meet their donor if they wish.
“Recently, I was privileged to meet Barak at Ezer Mizion’s Bone Marrow Registry headquarters. I couldn’t believe how young he was! Our meeting was extremely emotional. I told him that I consider him another son and he replied that he considers me a second mother.”
Even more amazing, Barak’s two older brothers were recently discovered to be a match for another patient. His oldest brother, Peleg, ended up donating to that person.
Shulamit said, “I never imagined that such a young person would save my life. I am eternally grateful to him for the chance to watch my children and grandchildren grow up. Thank you Barak and Ezer Mizion!”
Winnipeg native Solly Dreman has spent the latter part of his life living in Israel serving as a liason between the diaspora and Israel. Solly, who is a professor emeritus at Ben Gurion university and clinical psychologist, and who has used his unique interpersonal skills to help organizations throughout the world, has a very close bond with Ezer Mizion.
“When I heard Shulamit’s story, and others like it, I realized how important it is to the Jewish community, whether on the other side of the world or right here in Winnipeg, that Ezer Mizion’s bone marrow registry flourish. The more people the organization can swab, in particular the young and healthy IDF soldiers that make up a large portion of the registry, the greater the chances of saving many more lives.”
Recently Ezer Mizion celebrated saving over 3100 lives in over 47 countries worldwide. It is special people like Barak and other Israeli soldiers that help save lives around the world. For more information you can visit www.Ezermizion.ca or call Dan Rand at 647-799-1475.
Israel
Join the Masa Canadian Professionals Volunteers Program!
You are invited on a 4-week volunteer program in Israel from October 14th to November 10th. Help rebuild Israeli society post-October 7th over Canadian Thanksgiving, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah. Spend three weeks based in Tel Aviv and one week based in Eilat!
This program is exclusively for Jewish professionals aged 22-50, working at Jewish organizations or remotely in any field.
The cost of the program is $150 USD to the organizer and $50 USD to Masa. Participants will receive a Masa grant of $2650 USD that is applied to participation and to cover additional costs. The cost of the program includes housing, meals while volunteering, transportation on travel days, health insurance, leadership training, and more. Volunteers are required to commit to the volunteer schedule, with the understanding that there will be the flexibility to work remotely for 8 specific days during the program. Flights are not included but you get a 15% discount from El Al.
Sign up here: https://www.masaisrael.org/go/canada-jp/ space is limited!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a difference and connect with fellow professionals. For more information, contact Mahla Finkleman, National Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Masa Canada, atmfinkleman@ujafed.org and/or Sam Goodman, Senior Manager of Israel Engagement, sgoodman@ujafed.org.
Save the Dates for Info Sessions:
- Thursday, September 5th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
- Wednesday, September 11th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
Join us in Israel for a meaningful and impactful experience with Masa!
weeks based in Tel Aviv and one week based in Eilat!
This program is exclusively for Jewish professionals aged 22-50, working at Jewish organizations or remotely in any field.
The cost of the program is $150 USD to the organizer and $50 USD to Masa. Participants will receive a Masa grant of $2650 USD that is applied to participation and to cover additional costs. The cost of the program includes housing, meals while volunteering, transportation on travel days, health insurance, leadership training, and more. Volunteers are required to commit to the volunteer schedule, with the understanding that there will be the flexibility to work remotely for 8 specific days during the program. Flights are not included but you get a 15% discount from El Al.
Sign up here: https://www.masaisrael.org/go/canada-jp/ space is limited!
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to make a difference and connect with fellow professionals. For more information, contact Mahla Finkleman, National Manager of Partnerships and Outreach, Masa Canada, atmfinkleman@ujafed.org and/or Sam Goodman, Senior Manager of Israel Engagement, sgoodman@ujafed.org.
Save the Dates for Info Sessions:
- Thursday, September 5th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
- Wednesday, September 11th, 12:00 – 12:30 EST
Join us in Israel for a meaningful and impactful experience with Masa!
Features
New website for Israelis interested in moving to Canada
By BERNIE BELLAN (May 21, 2024) A new website, titled “Orvrim to Canada” (https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/ovrim-en) has been receiving hundreds of thousands of visits, according to Michal Harel, operator of the website.
In an email sent to jewishpostandnews.ca Michal explained the reasons for her having started the website:
“In response to the October 7th events, a group of friends and I, all Israeli-Canadian immigrants, came together to launch a new website supporting Israelis relocating to Canada. “Our website, https://www.ovrimtocanada.com/, offers a comprehensive platform featuring:
- Step-by-step guides for starting the immigration process
- Settlement support and guidance
- Community connections and networking opportunities
- Business relocation assistance and expert advice
- Personal blog sharing immigrants’ experiences and insights
“With over 200,000 visitors and media coverage from prominent Israeli TV channels and newspapers, our website has already made a significant impact in many lives.”
A quick look at the website shows that it contains a wealth of information, almost all in Hebrew, but with an English version that gives an overview of what the website is all about.
The English version also contains a link to a Jerusalem Post story, published this past February, titled “Tired of war? Canada grants multi-year visas to Israelis” (https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-787914#google_vignette) That story not only explains the requirements involved for anyone interested in moving to Canada from Israel, it gives a detailed breakdown of the costs one should expect to encounter.
(Updated May 28)
We contacted Ms. Harel to ask whether she’s aware whether there has been an increase in the number of Israelis deciding to emigrate from Israel since October 7. (We want to make clear that we’re not advocating for Israelis to emigrate; we’re simply wanting to learn more about emigration figures – and whether there has been a change in the number of Israelis wanting to leave the country.)
Ms. Harel referred us to a website titled “Globes”: https://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1001471862
The website is in Hebrew, but we were able to translate it into English. There is a graph on the website showing both numbers of immigrants to Israel and emigrants.
The graph shows a fairly steady rate of emigration from 2015-2022, hovering in the 40,000 range, then in 2023 there’s a sudden increase in the number of emigrants to 60,000.
According to the website, the increase in emigrants is due more to a change in the methodology that Israel has been using to count immigrants and emigrants than it is to any sudden upsurge in emigration. (Apparently individuals who had formerly been living in Israel but who may have returned to Israel just once a year were being counted as having immigrated back to Israel. Now that they are no longer being counted as immigrants and instead are being treated as emigrants, the numbers have shifted radically.)
Yet, the website adds this warning: “The figures do not take into account the effects of the war, since it is still not possible to identify those who chose to emigrate following it. It is also difficult to estimate what Yalad Yom will produce – on the one hand, anti-Semitism and hatred of Jews and Israelis around the world reminds everyone where the Jewish home is. On the other hand, the bitter truth we discovered in October is that it was precisely in Israel, the safe fortress of the Jewish people, that a massacre took place reminding us of the horrors of the Holocaust. And if that’s not enough, the explosive social atmosphere and the difference in the state budget deficit, which will inevitably lead to a heavy burden of taxes and a reduction in public services, may convince Zionist Israelis that they don’t belong here.”
Thus, as much as many of us would be disappointed to learn that there is now an upsurge in Israelis wanting to move out of the country, once reliable figures begin to be produced for 2024, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that is the case – which helps to explain the tremendous popularity of Ms. Harel’s website.
Features
Message from a Palestinian in Gaza to protesters: “You’re hurting the Palestinian cause”
A very brave Palestinian who was willing to put his name to paper and write an article for Newsweek Magazine has exposed the utter hypocrisy of all those students – and others, who have been setting up encampments across the U.S. – and now Canada, too.
You can read the article at https://www.newsweek.com/message-gazan-campus-protesters-youre-hurting-palestinian-cause-opinion-1894313
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