One day, a Yad Sarah Ashdod volunteer named Ida got a phone call about a mother and son in need of assistance. She headed over the apartment to assess the situation. What she found was a nearly paraly...
Friends of Yad Sarah Blog
Bertha Moskovitz, born in Ukraine, made Aliyah to Israel in 1973 with her husband and daughter Marina, looking to start a new life. Settling in her new home, Bertha took a job working at "Agan Chemica...
Hadas and her parents first came to the Yad Sarah Play Center more than a year ago, along with the rest of her class.The five-year old struggled to keep up with her peers, growing increasingly irritab...
Oscar and Orit, a married couple in their 90s who are both Holocaust survivors, are both in poor health. They have no other family and their small apartment in Beer Sheba has deteriorated over time as...
Vladimir moved to Israel just three years ago from Russia and speaks only Russian. His only son was killed five years ago in a car accident, and he has no other living relatives. Dr. Lev, a dentist at...
As we move into 2019, let's take a look back at our major 2018 accomplishments! Dental Clinic: Over the past two years, Yad Sarah has increased its mobile dental outreach in the periphery, bring...
Rachel Dorzia, 78, has been volunteering in the Bnei Brak branch of Yad Sarah for 13 years, covering as many as 9 shifts per week.With many careers under her belt -- an IDF paratrooper, a police officer, a civil servant in the State Comptroller's office as well as a volunteer medic, Rachel is accustomed to demanding, yet fulfilling work in support of the community.At an age when many older adults are slowing down, Rachel has assumed responsibility for the medical and home care equipment, keeping inventory, repairing it and helping members of her community with the resources available at Yad Sarah, feeling particularly gratified by helping others cope with the often overwhelming responsibilities of caring for someone who is ill or injured.Rachel also nurtures the other volunteers by making sure there is always fresh coffee and cookies available.Understanding the kinds of health care crises that face so many individuals and families that come to Yad Sarah for help, Rachel said, "my...
A year ago, Policewoman Tzippy Ya’akobian was stabbed near the Old City of Jerusalem by a terrorist, and paralyzed from the neck down. She visited Yad Sarah to see how we could help -- she needed an adjustable bathroom chair. We had one in our Netanya branch and passed it along to her. Staff and volunteers in the Exhibition and Guidance Center also gave her information about building a ramp to enable her to visit her parents, and demonstrated adaptive equipment for the kitchen to make it comfortable for her to prepare food for herself and her family. There are countless stories about officers like Tzippy going out of their way to help others, protecting life and property. Yad Sarah is happy we were able to help her remain independent at home and engaged with her family and community.
Yad Sarah recently lent medical equipment to a Taglit-Birthright Israel group with physical disabilities making their first-ever trip to Israel! As the group traveled -- to Caesarea, Nahariya, through the North, Jerusalem, and more -- Yad Sarah branches around the country made sure they had the adaptive and health care support equipment they needed.Shiri Rosenbaum, an Israeli instructor who joined the group, wrote about the trip's impact and deep meaning: "As a guide in the project, I was so happy to see the group experience their right to 'Come to the land which God your Gd gives you.' They were excited at levels that are hard to describe: in Tiberias, at the Western Wall, everywhere. One of the participants told me, 'My friends all have stories from Israel. Now I will too.'"
A Mitzvah Fair at Temple Sinai in Roslyn, NY enabled us to reach out to members of the community interested in learning more about Yad Sarah. The synagogue youth group recently returned from a trip to Israel; a visit to Yad Sarah was on the group's itinerary. The teens enjoyed their visit to Yad Sarah and shared their impressions of the organization. Please visit us on Instagram, and post your own impressions using the hashtag #BecauseofYadSarah.
Eighth grade students at Stamford, CT's Bi-Cultural Day School eagerly anticipate the month-long trip to Israel as they have for close to 45 years in the school's history. This year, a stop at Yad Sarah for a full tour of the Jerusalem headquarters, a turn in the equipment workshop assembling crutches and a visit to the Play Center for children with Special Needs, aprogram selected by Max Dayan to benefit from his bar mitzvah gifts. Every child in the class contributed to Max's project and had the opportunity to see their tzedakah in action. Read Full Article in the Jewish Ledger
The first graduating class of 26 tour guides was recognized at a recent ceremony at Yad Sarah House, helping to insure inclusion for tourists with special needs. The course, designed to heighten awareness of travelers with special needs, reviewed the options for accessible tourism with practical information and resources. The course also shared information on how technological advances can support the tourist with mobility issues. Israel's Minister of Tourism, Amir Halevi, was on hand to congratulate the graduates. Read more about it in this recent article in the Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Yad-Sarah-trains-tour-guides-to-lead-people-with-movement-difficulties-545470 Yad Sarah's Tourist Services division provides support to travelers with special needs by offering the same services available to residents: lending of medical and home care equipment, wheelchair-accessible transportation, guidance on accessible tourist sites and accommodations. Although there is no charge for borrowing equipment, tourists may opt to pay to have the equipment delivered and picked up from their hotel or...
Yad Sarah Dental Clinics continue to grow, adding treatment hours to reduce waiting times in the Jerusalem clinic, and adding dentists and dental assistants at the new mobile dental clinics in the north and south of the country – a project now in its second year. In addition to hundreds of low-income, elderly people who are treated at the Jerusalem dental clinic, Yad Sarah dentists in the mobile clinics anticipate1,400 treatments to disabled, home-bound people in 2018. A recent article about Yad Sarah's mobile dental clinic in Los Angeles' Jewish Journal, brings attention to the diversity among our staff and volunteers, as well as the homebound patients in need of care. Read more about it here: http://jewishjournal.com/culture/lifestyle/humans-of-israel/230801/compassion-part-treatment/
There are dramatic differences in health outcomes between those who live in most of central Israel and those on the country's northern and southern periphery. Addressing this disparity requires several solutions, including Yad Sarah's "Home Hospital" program, recently introduced in Israel's Southern periphery. Through Yad Sarah's "Home Hospital" program, the organization lends out medical equipment from hospital beds and hoists to wheelchairs and oxygen tanks to, whenever possible, enable the elderly, injured and sick to receive care at home -- not in a hospital. By facilitating timelier discharges of patients, the program promises to reduce pressure on overwhelmed hospitals and ensure that beds are available for those in greatest need. http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/tackling-the-urban-rural-health-care-divide-a-lesson-from-israels-periphery/
With hospitals in Israel struggling with overcrowding, and a report from the Ministry of Health indicating that 44% of Israelis are frustrated by long waits and overwhelmed medical staff, Yad Sarah is uniquely positioned to address some of these issues by ensuring that options for home care make it possible for people to receive care at home. Two foundations -- The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust and the Rosenbojm-Komor Foundation -- have supported projects that promote the availability of home care equipment in Israel's periphery where the challenges facing communities in rural areas is particularly acute. The foundations are also supporting the expansion of Yad Sarah's dental clinic, reducing wait time for primary and specialist care in the Jerusalem clinic and expanding Yad Sarah's mobile capacity, thereby bringing much needed dental care to the frail elderly at home. As no relief is in sight from the government, private...
My father did not take risks lightly. Born in Poland and raised in Israel, he was reluctant to leave his comfortable (if unglamorous) job with the Israeli electric company for something bigger—and ris...
The United States might be able to learn from Yad Sarah's unique model for home health care delivery. Yad Sarah works to give people in Israel access to medical resources in a way that ultimately reduces stress on the national medical system while increasing the quality of care received. After establishing the Lending Service, Yad Sarah's largest and most basic service initiative, the organization followed with a home hospitalization program, enabling people to accept a timely hospital discharge and return home to the care of family or friends. Not only does the home hospitalization program help make patients more comfortable in their own surroundings, it also addresses the chronic overcrowding of Israeli hospitals and saves the Israeli economy nearly $400 million per annum. To read the full Op-Ed from the Jewish Journal, use this link: http://jewishjournal.com/opinion/216234/israels-yad-sarah-prescription-u-s-health-care-system/
Yad Sarah's Lending Service is the organization's largest service, making health and home care equipment available at 100+ branches all over Israel. With more than 150 different kinds of home care equipment available, Yad Sarah makes it possible for people with special needs to remain as independent as possible, inside and outside the home. Since durable medical and home care equipment is not a benefit provided by Israeli health insurance, Yad Sarah loans equipment to anyone in need, enabling people to cope with illness and injury at home and in the community among family, friends, and everyday surroundings. The provision of medical equipment facilitates a timely hospital discharge, significantly reducing health care costs as well as exposure to institution-based infections. The Exhibition and Guidance Center, located in Jerusalem, Beersheva, Modiin, Haifa, Raanana, Rishon LeZion permit people and their family caregivers to review mobility and home care equipment options and receive...
On Yom HaZikaron, Israel's Memorial Day, Yad Sarah volunteers gathered at Har Herzl Military Cemetery to help family members of fallen soldiers visit the graves of their loved ones, and Yad Sarah wheelchair-accessible vans brought people to and from the cemetery. #BecauseofYadSarah all Israelis could honor this special day.
A gift of $28,000 is needed to complete the purchase of a wheelchair accessible van for Yad Sarah in Beersheva. This large branch, the flagship branch for Israel's south, serves Beersheva and the surrounding communities with equipment loans and repair, homebound outreach, an Exhibition Center, Yad Riva Legal Services for the elderly, and Day Rehabilitation. The van is needed to enable the Day Rehab program to accommodate additional clients in the program. Rotary of Beersheva has committed 100,000 NIS to the project and has secured a match of 100,000 NIS from Rotary International. An additional gift of $28,000 is needed to help purchase the van. The donor will share the dedication with the Rotary group, and names will be listed on the doors of the van in English and Hebrew. Interested in this unique tribute? Contact us: 1-866-YAD-SARAH or via email:
