Hadassah Great Plains E-Bullen April 2016 No. 1 A Word from the Region President Spring me and holidays! Walking, planng, cleaning, planning summer vacaons, Hadassah. April 11 – Every Step Counts – Hadassah’s Walking Program – begin walking with me from Jerusalem, Israel to Atlanta, Georgia – see informaon below and sign up without delay! The choice is yours – wear any pedometer and enter your steps on our fun website or get a Fitbit, Jawbone, etc. and you can sign up and have your steps automacally uploaded every day. (You can get credit for dozens of other exercises too.) We will stop at two dozen landmarks along the way and learn about The Power of Women Who Heal. It is the cheapest vacaon you will ever take!! You can form a team – no need to be a Hadassah member – and all dona- ons go to support heart health programming in the US. Register Now! April 22 – Passover – Did you receive an appeal leer in the mail? Personalized address labels? If so, please consider making a donaon to support the increasingly important work that we do. Thank you! Also available – Hadassah Young Judaea Bracelets – a perfect Mother’s Day and any day giſt – your money goes to scholarships for kids to go to camp here in the US or to go on an Israel program. Order today! TREES for THE NEGEV! Fabulous new tree cerficate highlights our cooperaon with JNF to GREEN the NEGEV by planng trees in new communies, helping to build a recreaon park and assisng with water conservaon in the Be’er Sheva area. Order this all occasion cerficate – 212-685-9550.
Transcript
Hadassah Great Plains E-Bulletin April 2016
No. 1
A Word from the Region President
Spring time and holidays! Walking, planting, cleaning, planning summer vacations, Hadassah.
April 11 – Every Step Counts – Hadassah’s Walking Program – begin walking with me from Jerusalem, Israel to Atlanta, Georgia – see information below and sign up without delay! The choice is yours – wear any pedometer and enter your steps on our fun website or get a Fitbit, Jawbone, etc. and you can sign up and have your steps automatically uploaded every day. (You can get credit for dozens of other exercises too.) We will stop at two dozen landmarks along the way and learn about The Power of Women Who Heal. It is the cheapest vacation you will ever take!! You can form a team – no need to be a Hadassah member – and all dona-tions go to support heart health programming in the US. Register Now!
April 22 – Passover – Did you receive an appeal letter in the
mail? Personalized address labels? If so, please consider
making a donation to support the increasingly important
work that we do. Thank you!
Also available – Hadassah Young Judaea Bracelets – a perfect Mother’s Day and any day gift – your money goes to scholarships for kids to go to camp here in the US or to go on an Israel program. Order today!
TREES for THE NEGEV! Fabulous new tree certificate highlights
our cooperation with JNF to GREEN the NEGEV by planting trees in
new communities, helping to build a recreation park and assisting
with water conservation in the Be’er Sheva area. Order this all
May 8 – Mother’s Day – An opportunity to perform a double mitzvah! Purchase a card for $36 and support the lifesaving work of Lung Cancer research. Each card you purchase will be sent by “snail mail” directly to your loved one. Looking for a way to perform a bigger mitzvah and give a gift of jewelry? For $150, you can order a beautiful necklace made just for Hadas-sah. Get both for $186.00. Click here or go direct to the Hadassah website – Associates – April 2016 Update.
November 9 – 20, 2015 - Looking for that perfect tour? This just may be it!
From Ancient to Awesome Mission: Israel's Past, Present & Future Marvel at the beauty of ancient Israel and experience it like a local. Discover what has driven Tel Aviv technological progress to become the cyber capital of Israel. In Jerusalem, taste the local food at Machane Yehuda, take a walking tour, shop along Ben Yehuda Street and welcome Shabbat at the Western Wall. Meet Gill Hoffman, Chief Political Correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, tour Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, including the Mother and Child Pavilion and the Sarah Wetsman Davidson Hospital Tower. Float on the Dead Sea and ascend to Masada by cable car. Visit a Bedouin camp and ride a camel in the desert. See technology at work in Be'er Sheva, & meet the entrepreneurs behind the growth of the biggest startup movement in Israel. Visit hadassah.org/missions for more information
If you take away just one thought after reading this E-Bulletin – let it be: Hadassah Saves Lives – around the world we collaborate with numerous hospitals, doctors, researchers, countries, cities, states and more. Every dollar we raise takes us one step closer to saving another person, curing another disease, saving another person from heartbreak. Every Donation Counts.
Happy Spring, Happy Passover, Happy Mother’s Day – See YOU in Atlanta in July.
Teree Farbstein Your Hadassah Great Plains President
A Word from the Region President (Continued)
In this Issue
Region Meeting Save the Date 2
News from Israel and HMO 4,5
The Human Spirit: Osteopetrosis and our little Israel by Barbara Sofer
New and wonderful things are happening at Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO). Thirteen underground state-of-the-art Operating Rooms are open for business, and we have a new Director General, Prof. Zeev Rotstein, who is as enthusiastic as he is accomplished.
Thanks to a new App, the hundreds of Hadassah Medical Center physicians and nurses who signed up to be members of Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) first responders' data bank, will now be alerted even before an MDA ambulance can reach the scene. This app, called “Lifesaving Faithful,” automatically calls up nearby medical staff and volunteers, who know how to administer cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and might only be minutes away from the patient who needs immediate aid. Included in this first responder cadre are non-medical staff who have passed a 20-hour course in first aid. This new project was launched with a festive sign-up in the atrium of Hadassah’s Sarah Wetsman Davidson Hospital Tower. Hadassah's Heart Institute, under the leadership of Prof. Chaim Lotem and Senior Cardiologist Dr. Amir Orlev, coordinated the activity. “A good
friend of mine died from a heart attack when I was too far away to get to him," said Prof. Lotem. "In my professional life, I've come across many cases where a person might have been saved if the connection had been made with a nearby trained giver of first aid." Among those who registered was Director General Prof. Zeev Rotstein, a cardiologist. “I am delighted to join this life-saving mission,” he said. “The cooperation between Hadassah and Magen David Adom is very extensive, treating the in-jured who get their first treatment from the dedicated and skilled paramedics in the field and continued by the excellent medical staff at Hadassah. Now we have the opportunity to deepen the cooperation by joining this data base which is the biggest of its kind in the country. The staff members of Hadassah are proud to save lives within Hadassah Hospital and outside of it." Hadassah is the first hospital in Israel to take part in this new endeavor. MDA Chief Executive Officer Eli Bean notes, “I’d like to thank the hundreds of doctors and nurses of Hadassah who have joined this project. I’m sure their contribution to this project and to the task of saving lives will be great. “
New First Responder App Brings HMO Medical Help Before Ambulance
Interview with New Director General of HMO Dr. Zeev Rotstein
HMO and Hebrew U Students Invent Device to Save Terror Victims
At a time when waves of stabbings are rampant throughout Israel and many victims are experiencing life-threatening chest trauma, the BioDesign: Medical Innovation team of the Hadassah Medical Center and Hebrew University have invented a device that shortens the procedure time of in-serting a life-saving chest tube from about 15 minutes to less than 30 seconds.
The reason it is so important to insert a chest tube in the patient very quickly is that chest trauma often leads to po-tentially fatal pneumothorax, where air accumulates in the space which separates the lungs from the chest wall, causing
the lung to collapse and the patient to suffocate. This scenario is believed to be responsible for over a third of prevent-able deaths following terror attacks and injuries on the battlefield.
Currently, the physician must engage in a two-step procedure. First, the thorax, where the lungs and other vital organs are located, must be decompressed. This is followed by the separating of the tissue to insert a chest tube, which will drain air and blood, allowing the lung to re-inflate. “This is a very laborious and technically difficult procedure," reports Dr. Ariel Drori, an internal medicine expert at Hadassah, "leading caregivers to neglect the second procedure in favor of rapid evacuation to the hospital."
To address this challenge, Dr. Drori partnered with Yoav Kan-Tor and Bettina Nadorp, engineering students at the He-brew University's Alexander Grass Center for Bioengineering, along with Dr. Liran Levy, a Hadassah pulmonologist, and Chen Goldstein, a Hebrew University business graduate student. Together they developed ThoraXS, a single-step, rapid life-saving solution. Its closed-knife shape allows the physician to penetrate the pleural space (between the lungs and the chest wall) and its mechanical opening mechanism enables the physician to open a portal (point of entry) with one hand and quickly insert a chest tube with the other. Read the full article.
Additional Links Dr. Tamar Peretz Explains Groundbreaking Research with BRCA1 Gene Mutation: See full story at
www.hadassah.org.
Improving Quality of Life for Patients with Movement Disorders: see full story at www.hadassah.org.
Terror Victim’s Quality of Life Improved with Follow-up Surgery: see full story at www.hadassah.org.
Gender Makes a Difference in Medicine: see full story at www.hadassah.org.
The Human Spirit: Osteopetrosis and our little Israel Written by Barbara Sofer, Director of Public Relations, Hadassah Office in Israel
Published on JPost.com
Most of us, particularly women, know what osteoporosis is: the weakening of our bones that we in the Western world fight with exercise and medication as we grow older. But there is a disease called osteopetrosis, a rare and fatal genetic bone disease that afflicts children. Petrosis: think petrified forests.
The hematologist who treats children born with this disease explains tells me there are two types of bone cells: osteo-blasts and osteoclasts. Osteoblasts build bone. Osteoclasts (like iconoclasts) tear down the structure. Working together, the two processes make our bones porous, as they should be. Think of soup bones. But when osteoclasts don’t do their job, our bones turn solid, like stone. Actually like marble. Osteopetrosis is also called “marble bone disease.”
In a Northern Russian Republic called Chuvash, one of every 4,000 newborns is reportedly born with this condition. In the pediatric hematology department at Hadassah University Medical Center, there is a a cluster of children and parents who know this disease personally.
Svetlana Izozsimova, a feisty, dark-haired grandmother, is among them. So is her grandson Kirill. It was Izozsimova who made the unlikely connection with Jerusalem when Kirill was diagnosed with osteopetrosis. He’s five now, and in Jerusa-lem for his two-year check-up.
“The doctors at home were able to diagnose the disease when he was a toddler” she tells me through the translator. “But there was no treatment. They told us Kirill would die, regretfully a terrible death.” First he would go blind, and then maybe deaf. His head would grow misshapen. Izozsimova, 50, works as a cleaning woman and as an occasional sales-woman.
Read the full article on JPost.com.
You Can Start Planning Now!
From celebrities to Israeli statesmen and women...to authors and activists...to the guest speakers. The Hadassah 98th National will be inspiring and unforgettable. And they are just part of this Convention's four powerful days. Equally exciting—the opportunity to spend time again with your Hadassah friends, exchanging creative ideas and insights, memories and laughter. At plenary sessions, receptions, dinners and workshops, you will be empowered, motivated and inspired. Registration will open in April, but you can book your room at the beautiful Atlanta Marriott Marquis today at special Hadassah rates.
(Book an extra day or two to take advantage of Atlanta's spectacular restaurants, golf courses, and tour "Jewish Atlanta.")
Convention will be 4 POWERFUL DAYS that will challenge you, teach you and entertain you.
The goal of Curriculum Watch is to ensure standards of education that are historically accurate and ethnically and culturally unbiased. Chaired by Dr. Sandra Alfonsi, Curriculum Watch takes on the serious business of challenging publishers and educational institutions when their textbooks and materials indicate a bias against Jews or other minorities, or when the history of the United States, Israel, or the world is clearly misstated or “sanitized” in favor of one group over another.
To learn more about Curriculum Watch at Hadassah.org
Hadassah Online Professional Business Directory
EXCLUSIVE NEW BENEFIT FOR LIFE AND EMEMBERS:
Promote your profession and expand your business reach to our hundreds of thousands of members. In turn, the Directory gives Hadassah women access to
needed services provided by members throughout the country and locally. Sign Up Today!
Do you know an 18 – 26 year old looking for the Summer of a Lifetime? Sign up for the classic Birthright trip or one of these unique five niche programs: Tel Aviv Experience; New Age, Family and Friends, BR+, and LGBT. Use your exclusive referral code, "Hadassah VIP", and receive priority treatment! For every person who uses this code, Young Judaea will donate $10 to Hadassah for scholarships! Encourage friends and family to sign up for one of Young Judaea's award-winning Birthright trips.
If you are looking for a trip to remember – check out Hadassah Missions – enjoy Israel in 2016! Become a Hadassah Advocate
Register for the Email Action Network
Keep apprised of issues that matter. Sign up for Hadassah's email Advocacy Alerts to stay informed on the latest legislation before Congress, Hadassah’s policy priorities and opportunities for action.
50 State Advocacy Network
Join our 50 State Advocacy network and effect change in your community and nationwide. Help start a Hadassah advocacy initiative in your community or join an existing effort. Members play a vital role in our local, state, and national advocacy initia-tives. Interested in rolling up your sleeves and really making a difference? Join us! The Network works closely with the Hadassah Advocacy Team to disseminate advocacy information and mobilize local members, as well as provide the Team with information on members’ policy concerns, interests, and needs on the ground. Visit hadassah.org/advocate/#become-an-advocate and sign up to become a Hadassah Advocate.
Who could be a Keeper? Look beyond your “typical” annual giving prospect and use targeted approaches designed for specific populations---Associates, widowers, Unit leadership, Nurses, and more.
YOUR $15 A MONTH CAN TRANSFORM A LIFE. It can help mend a broken body at a Hadassah hospital in Israel. Or advance medical research that could change the world. Or provide a productive future for at-risk children in Israel. Or empower women in the US to advance health and well-being in their homes, in their communities, and in the halls of government. JOIN HADASSAH’S Chai society. When you are a member of
Chai Society, Hadassah can count on you, month after month, year after year. It is your commitment that makes the difference. We make it easy. We will automatically charge your monthly gift of $15 to your credit card, or double the effect with $30 a month at the Silver Chai level. If you prefer, you can make one annual payment of $180 to $360. These contributions enable you to help save a life, to be part of something big, something vital.
TOP TEN REASONS FOR BECOMING A KEEPER OF THE GATE
10. Get FREQUENT FLYER miles by putting the gift on your credit card.
9. Becoming a Keeper of the Gate forever links YOU to ISRAEL and HADASSAH.
8. By donating to Hadassah and our projects, you have the power to choose as a Keeper of the Gate where it means the most to you.
7. A minimum annual gift of $1,000 (just $83.33 a month) can start you on the road to CUMULATIVE GIVING or accelerate you to higher recognition levels.
6. Help Hadassah even more by becoming a GOLDEN KEEPER OF THE GATE with a $5,000 minimum annual gift (or $417 a month).
5. You will receive recognition on the beautiful KEEPERS OF THE GATE PILLARS in the Hadassah Hospital-Ein Kerem court-yard in just three years if you are a Golden Keeper or five years as a Traditional or Chai Keeper.
4. You will be eligible to purchase the elegant DAVID’S HARP PIN OR PENDANT—or LAPEL PIN FOR ASSOCIATE KEEPERS. (Note, it can be part of your first Keeper’s gift, as a non-deductible portion).
3. Continue our LEGACY as we celebrate over 18 YEARS ofsending more than $45 million to sustain Hadassah’s life-saving and life sustaining work.
2. Because of your passion and commitment to Hadassah’s work, you understand exactly HOW CRITICAL EACH DOLLAR is.
1. As a Hadassah Keeper, YOU LEAD BY EXAMPLE! You will show the world how important it is to fulfill Hadassah’s obliga-tions to its projects and ensure our future!
E-Bulletin Page 10
The 1912 Legacy Society
Join the 1912 Legacy Society
The 1912 Legacy Society honors our members and friends who are including a gift to Hadassah in their estate plan. We would be gratified and honored to include you in the 1912 Legacy Society if you have:
Provided for Hadassah in your will or trust.
Designated Hadassah as beneficiary of a retirement plan, savings bond, bank account, life insurance policy, or other asset.
To become a member of the 1912 Legacy Society, simply complete and return a non-binding Letter of Intent. 1912 Legacy Society members receive an elegant silver and enamel pin and are recognized in Hadassah's newsletter. We are proud to honor our 1912 Legacy Society members! For more information contact Lisa Smith, Associate Director of Planned Giving & Estates, at 212-303-8099 or
Looking at the chapters locations in this quarter’s Chapter Chai Lights is like taking a tour around our Region
Wichita Chapter On January 17 the Wichita Chapter of Hadassah had their installation and women's preventative health are are program. The program was presented by Dr. Cathy Woodring. She brought us up to date on preventive health care, testing that is necessary and testing that is not necessary and in what phase of life we should have the tests. It was followed by a lively question and answer session. Many thanks to our hostess, Jaime Schmaltz, and Doris Weller, our immediate past president, who handled the installation. A thank you gift was pre-sented to Judy Eichhorn for her past year of service and we are looking forward to another year of her presidency.
E-Bulletin Page 12
Chapter Chai Lights
Greater Kansas City Chapter
Indianapolis Chapter If your Book Club is looking for ideas check out what people are reading in Indianapolis!
March Book - “Marriage of Opposites” by Alice Hoffman
April Book - “The Aleppo Codex” by Matti Friedman
May Book - “The Glass Room” by Simon Mawer
June Book - “Brooklyn”
July Book - “In the Unlikely Event” by Judy Bloom
August Book - “The Nightingale” by Kristen Hannah
September Book - “Notorious rbg” Ruth Bader Ginsberg by Irin Cannon & Shana Knizh
October Book - “My Life on the Road” by Gloria Steinham
November Book - “Debt of Tamar” by Nicole Dweck
Hadassah Great Plains E-Bulletin
"Charitable Deductions are allowed to the extent provided by law. While Hadassah intends to respect your wishes regarding gifts, in Accordance with U.S. tax law requirements regarding deductibility of contributions, Hadassah shall have full dominion, control and discretion over gifts."
