Donate BloodThe Life You Save May Be Your Own

On December 11th, KJ and Ramaz held its annual blood drive to address an ongoing blood shortage emergency in our local hospitals. Working with the New York Blood Center, we collected 99 pints of blood–a record for our community. As each pint saves the lives of three individuals, KJ/Ramaz was proud to have saved 297 lives in just six hours!

Blood drives are essential to saving the lives of diverse patient populations: accident and burn victims, heart surgery and organ transplant patients, and those battling cancer. In fact, every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood. And in a post-Covid world, community blood drives have proven to be even more important than ever. As Jeff Fisher, one of the co-chairs, explained, “Blood drives such as ours fill the gap that’s being left by fewer corporate drives due to more employees working from home. They are also vital in addressing the current rise in elective surgeries, which were previously on hold during the height of the pandemic.”

One of the reasons this year’s campaign was so successful is that KJ/ Ramaz partnered with Chabad Young Professionals (CYP), which allowed us to attract a more diverse (dare we say younger) group to our drive. This initiative was spearheaded by Gershon

Haft, who was determined to bring many of the donors from CYP’s last successful blood drive to our shul. It was wonderful to see new faces performing this incredible act of chesed alongside our community members. We look forward to continued partnership with CYP in the future!

Holding a blood drive involves a lot of logistics and coordination. But with an army of dedicated professionals, it appeared to run like clockwork. The New York Blood Center (NYBC) team continued to impress us, as they do year after year. They arrived at 6:30 in the morning, set everything up and worked tirelessly throughout the day to collect as many donations as possible. Equally impressive was KJ’s is such a wonderful feeling to know that you are helping another person perform a lifesaving act of chesed.”

Some donors don’t require any coaxing, as they regularly show up each and every year. As soon as they hear the date of the blood drive, they sign up for their time slot and gladly open their veins. One such donor, Raanan Gononsky, looks forward to the drive every year. When asked why he donates he said, “I have had very close family members and friends need emergency transfusions–thank God they are all well now. I realized how easy it was to donate blood and it was the least I could do to pay it forward and ensure that our amazing medical professionals have the resources they need to save lives.” incredible maintenance staff, who didn’t miss a beat turning the middle school auditorium into a blood donation center. Knowing they could count on both NYBC and KJ to handle most of the logistics, the blood drive co-chairs, Jessica Weiss and Jeff Fisher, mostly focused their efforts on recruiting donors, beginning several weeks before the drive. Jessica admits that sometimes it takes a little nudging to get members of the community to become aware of the event and then actually show up. But as she likes to say, “I’d much rather ask people for their blood than their money. Plus, it

While the majority of the donors at this year’s drive were members of KJ, Ramaz, or Chabad Young Professionals, there were also a number of donors from the wider Upper East Side Community, who heard about our event from either the New York Blood Center or other local events calendars. Many of them appreciated the opportunity to donate blood a little closer to home than the NYBC donation sites, the closest one being in the 60s. Cameron Bar-Lev, a local neighbor, was grateful that she could give blood without walking an extra 20 blocks. Plus, she liked knowing that she is contributing to a community drive, even if she herself is not part of the community.

A recent trend we noticed at this year’s blood drive was husbands and wives showing up together to give blood. Many joked that it was the most romantic activity they could do as a couple–much better than any couples massage. This year’s dynamic duos included Rebecca and Evan Farber, Stacey and David Kanbar, Annie and Avery Katz, Jessica and Marcus Weiss, Cameron and Josh Bar-Lev, and Andrea Thau and John Lieberman. When asked why she decided to participate in this act of chesed alongside her husband, Stacey Kanbar stated, “It’s such an easy way to help save lives–there isn’t much to think about. We are so grateful to be able to donate and to show our children the importance of participating in this life-saving mitzvah.”

While KJ/Ramaz community members are encouraged to participate in the annual drive, it is not the only time one can donate. In fact, people should feel free to donate any time of the year at one of the NYBC donation sites. And when you do, make sure to use the KJ/Ramaz organization code, 63524. Andrea Thau proudly uses this code whenever she donates regularly with her husband, John, and son, Evan. She knows that entering the code allows us to calculate the total number of donations made by community members throughout the year.

For example, in 2022, we donated more than 111 pints at NYBC sites citywide in addition to the 69 pints collected at our local blood drive, bringing our annualized total to 180 life-saving donations that positively impacted 540 recipients! The organization code also ensures that our community is properly recognized for the leadership and participation we exemplify as lifesavers. There is no greater Kiddush HaShem!

Clergy and community members were so impressed by this year’s recordbreaking turnout at the KJ/Ramaz blood drive. Through the incredible generosity of our selfless community members, we are proud to have saved just under 300 lives. But we must admit that collecting 99 pints of blood was just a slight disappointment, as our original goal was to collect 100 pints. Being shy of just one pint was a stark reminder that we can always strive to do better.

In fact, when we wish someone “tizku l’mitzvot,” we are saying, “May you have the merit to perform more mitzvot”–which is what we intend to do later this year. Due to the incredible success of the winter blood drive, and for the first time ever, KJ/Ramaz, in partnership with Chabad Young Professionals, has decided to hold an additional blood drive in the spring!

So mark your calendars for the next blood drive: Sunday, March 26th, from 8:30am to 2:30pm at the Ramaz Lower School. Whether you are a first-time or veteran donor, please come by to help us meet our goal of 100+ pints and to perform this unbelievable lifesaving mitzvah. Tizku L’mitzvot!