Top IDF brass sign organ-donation cards

Chief military rabbi and OC Medical Corps officer sign cards; military to raise awareness to subject.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
ronzki nachman ash sign adi 248.88 (photo credit: IDF)
ronzki nachman ash sign adi 248.88
(photo credit: IDF)
The IDF's Chief Rabbi, OC Chaplaincy Brig. -Gen. Avichai Ronzki and OC Medical Corps Brig. -Gen. Nachman Ash both signed up for an organ donation card during a ceremony in the Kirya Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv on Sunday. The IDF will soon begin a wide scale effort to increase soldiers' awareness of organ donation. Ash spoke of the importance of signing up for a card: "Part of IDF ethics, especially in the Medical Corps, is saving and preserving life and I am happy to join the organ-donators club." Ronzki said that "The Torah itself consecrates the preservation of life and we are happy to push this subject forward." The awareness campaign was initiated by Netanel Rahamim, a reserve paramedic whose brother was killed by a disease. At the time, Rahamim and his sister both donated organs to their brother but he died nonetheless. Rahamim has said that if there were more organ donors at the time, his brother would have survived. Shortly after concluding his military service, Rahamim decided to return to the military as a volunteer. His service included only work designated to raise awareness to the issue of organ donations, and his speeches to soldiers on the importance of organ donation brought more than 5,700 soldiers to sign up. Rahamim, who will soon finish his service as a volunteer, said that the signing of a donor card by both the IDF's chief rabbi and the army chief medical officer completed a circle for him. "I am happy that we succeeded in creating awareness that medicine goes hand in hand with the Torah and the proof of this is that both the chief rabbi and chief medical officer signed a card today," he said. More than 1,000 families are awaiting organ donations to save their loved ones and Rahamim - who hopes his efforts will continue to bear fruit in the future - explained why he had decided to devote himself to the issue: "I didn't want other families to go through what my family suffered."