Inspiration:
A
New Lease on Life:
Organ donation awareness takes center stage during National Donor Shabbat
By
Orit Arta, Contributing Writer
Jewish Journal, November 6, 1998
Repreinted by permission
Jewish Journal, November 6, 1998
Repreinted by permission
About two-and-a-half years ago Michael
Goldberg’s life was on the line.
A diabetic since he was a teen-ager, his kidneys began to fail him at 36. The only hope for Michael’s survival was a kidney and pancreas transplant. Due to a shortage of organ donors throughout the country, Michael, his wife, Elizabeth, and his parents, Esther and Irv Goldberg, waited for 18 anxiety-filled months until Doctors found a suitable match: a young man of seventeen, the victim of a fatal automobile accident, who had previously advised his parents about his desire to donate his organs. Michael now had the chance he needed to live. At that point, Irv and Esther Goldberg began their mission to find a way to help increase organ and tissue donation via the interfaith religious community.
Irv created Transplant for Life, a grassroots movement dedicated to raising awareness in the interfaith religious community of the critical shortage of organ about the importance and permissibility of organ and tissue donation. The Southern California religious Jewish community, representing all four main branches of Judaism is a pilot for
testing the effectiveness of this project.
Transplant for Life is busy mobilizing support for organ donation with help from religious leaders, who can impart to their congregations the importance of participating in the third annual National Donor Sabbath on November 13-15. The event was organized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with the goal of raising awareness in all faiths of the critical need for organ and tissue donation. Fewer then 10 percent of Americans participated in National Donor Sabbath in prior years according to a recent survey.
Irv Goldberg attributes poor participation to misconceptions about organ donation.
"Some fear that it goes against their religion when in fact all major religions support it," said Lynn Wegman, Deputy director of the Division of Transplantation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Goldberg said the Jewish community in particular is unaware that organ donation is not only permissible, but encouraged by all main branches of Judaism.
"Jewish religious leaders have various religious disagreements, but the fact is that this is one issue in which they are all united," Goldberg said.
Transplant for Life has secured the support of important religious figures to help realize their mission, including a unanimous endorsement from the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. The Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox), the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative) and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations all issued statements declaring organ and tissue donation as one of Judaism’s greatest mitzvot and pikuach nefesh, saving a life. Goldberg believes that congregation leaders should incorporate discussions and sermons about organ donation into services, particularly during National Donor Sabbath, in order to get more people involved and committed.
"We are attempting for the first time to hold every Rabbi and congregation accountable," Goldberg said.
Transplant for Life, which works out of Temple Kol Tikvah, a Reform congregation in Woodland Hills, intends to provide congregations with information and materials needed to educate their members—such as scriptural references and donor cards.
Goldberg and his supporters will also attempt to alleviate other concerns and fears that Jews may have about organ and tissue donation. Many do not want to contemplate their body parts existing in another person. Some do not want to make preparations for a day they hope remains in the distant future. Some worry about the condition of their body in an afterlife;
"The imperative to save lives supercedes the normal prohibitions against invading the integrity of one who has died out of honor for it," said Kol Tikvah’s Rabbi, Steven Jacobs in a Yom Kippur sermon. "And it definitely supercedes any worry about the condition of one’s body in a life after death."
Even the procedure of organ donation, Goldberg said, should not deter anyone from possibly saving a life. The donation of the heart, liver, lung and pancreas occurs only after the donor is declared brain dead. The recovery of organs does not disfigure the body or alters its appearance in a casket.
Goldberg is receiving positive feedback. At this time more then 50 percent of congregations that are members of the Board of Rabbis are committed to participating in National Donor Shabbat. Goldberg hopes that Transplant for Life will serve as a model for all religious organizations throughout the country. The program is easy to implement, he said, and the budget should not exceed $3,000.
Today, Michael Goldberg, a professor at the U. of Washington, Bothell remains in good health and is expecting his first child with his wife Elizabeth. When Irv Goldberg thinks about the 56,000 Americans who are on a waiting list for an organ, and the many who don’t get the chance that Michael did, his sense of urgency increases.
"This donor shortage must not be allowed to continue," Goldberg said. "We must sweep ignorance and myths aside."
A diabetic since he was a teen-ager, his kidneys began to fail him at 36. The only hope for Michael’s survival was a kidney and pancreas transplant. Due to a shortage of organ donors throughout the country, Michael, his wife, Elizabeth, and his parents, Esther and Irv Goldberg, waited for 18 anxiety-filled months until Doctors found a suitable match: a young man of seventeen, the victim of a fatal automobile accident, who had previously advised his parents about his desire to donate his organs. Michael now had the chance he needed to live. At that point, Irv and Esther Goldberg began their mission to find a way to help increase organ and tissue donation via the interfaith religious community.
Irv created Transplant for Life, a grassroots movement dedicated to raising awareness in the interfaith religious community of the critical shortage of organ about the importance and permissibility of organ and tissue donation. The Southern California religious Jewish community, representing all four main branches of Judaism is a pilot for
testing the effectiveness of this project.
Transplant for Life is busy mobilizing support for organ donation with help from religious leaders, who can impart to their congregations the importance of participating in the third annual National Donor Sabbath on November 13-15. The event was organized by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services with the goal of raising awareness in all faiths of the critical need for organ and tissue donation. Fewer then 10 percent of Americans participated in National Donor Sabbath in prior years according to a recent survey.
Irv Goldberg attributes poor participation to misconceptions about organ donation.
"Some fear that it goes against their religion when in fact all major religions support it," said Lynn Wegman, Deputy director of the Division of Transplantation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Goldberg said the Jewish community in particular is unaware that organ donation is not only permissible, but encouraged by all main branches of Judaism.
"Jewish religious leaders have various religious disagreements, but the fact is that this is one issue in which they are all united," Goldberg said.
Transplant for Life has secured the support of important religious figures to help realize their mission, including a unanimous endorsement from the Board of Rabbis of Southern California. The Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox), the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative) and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations all issued statements declaring organ and tissue donation as one of Judaism’s greatest mitzvot and pikuach nefesh, saving a life. Goldberg believes that congregation leaders should incorporate discussions and sermons about organ donation into services, particularly during National Donor Sabbath, in order to get more people involved and committed.
"We are attempting for the first time to hold every Rabbi and congregation accountable," Goldberg said.
Transplant for Life, which works out of Temple Kol Tikvah, a Reform congregation in Woodland Hills, intends to provide congregations with information and materials needed to educate their members—such as scriptural references and donor cards.
Goldberg and his supporters will also attempt to alleviate other concerns and fears that Jews may have about organ and tissue donation. Many do not want to contemplate their body parts existing in another person. Some do not want to make preparations for a day they hope remains in the distant future. Some worry about the condition of their body in an afterlife;
"The imperative to save lives supercedes the normal prohibitions against invading the integrity of one who has died out of honor for it," said Kol Tikvah’s Rabbi, Steven Jacobs in a Yom Kippur sermon. "And it definitely supercedes any worry about the condition of one’s body in a life after death."
Even the procedure of organ donation, Goldberg said, should not deter anyone from possibly saving a life. The donation of the heart, liver, lung and pancreas occurs only after the donor is declared brain dead. The recovery of organs does not disfigure the body or alters its appearance in a casket.
Goldberg is receiving positive feedback. At this time more then 50 percent of congregations that are members of the Board of Rabbis are committed to participating in National Donor Shabbat. Goldberg hopes that Transplant for Life will serve as a model for all religious organizations throughout the country. The program is easy to implement, he said, and the budget should not exceed $3,000.
Today, Michael Goldberg, a professor at the U. of Washington, Bothell remains in good health and is expecting his first child with his wife Elizabeth. When Irv Goldberg thinks about the 56,000 Americans who are on a waiting list for an organ, and the many who don’t get the chance that Michael did, his sense of urgency increases.
"This donor shortage must not be allowed to continue," Goldberg said. "We must sweep ignorance and myths aside."
After watching his son Michael Goldberg, above, wait 12 months for a kidney donor, Irv Goldberg created the grassroots movement, Transplant for Life. The organization raises awareness of the need for donors to save families like theirs, above, the burden of waiting.
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