More than 200 of the almost 1000 members of the UJA Koach Mission now in Israel, converged on Hadassah Hospital to donate blood in an immediate response to last Thursday’s act of terrorism in the center of Jerusalem. During the weekend, special units were brought to the Diplomat Hotel in Jerusalem, where four rooms were made available to enable the rest of the Koach participants to donate their blood.
On learning of the mission members’ spontaneous decision, Lucien Harris, director of Hadassah Information Services in Israel, said, “We are absolutely thrilled by this voluntary gesture by the UJA young leaders. What they are doing is giving us added hope and strength, and providing us with additional help in healing our patients. We are all deeply touched…we haven’t had a display like this since the Yom Kippur War.”
In response to questions by reporters at the scene, mission members expressed their sentiments: “At times like these,” said Richard Rudnick of Palm Springs. Calif., “if we don’t give blood from our bodies, we will have it on our hands.” Trudy Emanuel, from New York, had never given blood in her life. “After what happened here, what else could I do?” she said, Michael Bennet of Ban Diego, Calif., declared, “I want to give more than money…I’m giving something of myself.”
R. Alan Rudy, chairman of the Young Leadership Cabinet and leader of the Koach Mission, spoke for the entire group when he stated, “This deeply personal demonstration of unity and concern proves that we are one…in strength, in determination, in action. This is the true meaning of Koach, of Jewish solidarity.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
