Amazing Stories

While we wait on the formation of the government coalition, with all it's drama, there are other dramas taking place in Israel...amazing ones.

I will recount three of the most recent ones.

Over the weekend two spectacular events unfolded at Beilinson Medical Center in Petah Tikvah. One, a 19 year old girl on a birthright trip from Georgia (part of the former Soviet Union) fell acutely ill with a previously unknown genetic liver ailment. She needed a liver transplant immediately, or would not have survived. The story, told here by Hillel Fendel of Israel National News, is heartwarming and wonderful. Among the many miracles involved was that she needed to obtain Israeli citizenship in order to have the operation and have it paid for, so with the help of the Prime Minister's Office and Netiv, the Russian component of Israel's Foreign Ministry, this 19 year old woman received her citizenship within 2 days! Many more miracles, including the sudden availability of a matching organ. Read the full story here.

Remarkably, the 2nd miracle took place at the same hospital in Peta Tikvah. It involves a double track simultaneous saving of lives of a new baby and the mother giving birth. Also quite a story, in the same article by Hillel Fendel.

The third drama doesn't take place in Israel but is the story of a young man who now lives in Ashkelon and Israel is shaping his new life. He came from a family who had hidden their Jewishness, then reclaimed it - except in the youth of this now 35 year old John Daly, a skinhead group in Florida intimidated and coerced him into their group, not knowing he was Jewish. Too terrified to flee as no one left the group alive, he rose in the ranks of the organization, until one day, his Jewishness was discovered. His is a remarkable story that everyone should read. Even today, his life is in danger, yet he is outspoken about his history and adamant to have the right to be Jewish, no matter the cost. Kol hakavod to John Daly. Read his story in the Jerusalem Post article by Maxine Liptzen-Dorot.