We’re Jews and we care. Geography plays no role. A Jew, wherever she resides on the globe, will hear of the difficulties of another and immediately go into practical mode: what can I do to help? That’s the way it always has been and that’s the way it was two years ago when the Ezer Mizion Cap Project went viral.
The weather in Israel was icy. Not a pleasant situation for anyone. But for a woman being treated with chemo, who already feels the chill of fear and loneliness, the loss of hair in the freezing weather was too much to bear.
A notice was posted on a Knitting Whatsapp Group in Israel: Would anyone like to knit a cap for these women? The answer arrived in a blizzard of 200 caps! Each one knitted or crocheted in soft yarn, colors and patterns as varied as the knitters themselves, each one lovelier than the next. Many were accompanied with notes for get well wishes and prayers were knitted into each stitch.
As posts sometimes do, it went viral. Other groups picked up the posting. Ezer Mizion received 47 caps from South Africa. Hundreds from the US, UK. The blizzard continued, even into the summer. Lighter caps, summer colors. As the calendar moved, so did the caps. More warm, cozy ones in winter colors. Jaunty tassles on some, others feminine bell-shaped.
Meet Sharon. She is a Holocaust survivor living near Bais Shemesh. . One hundred and one years old! Wanting to repay Hashem for her long life, she tries to use each day to bring Him joy. Her 101 year old fingers produced twenty gorgeous caps. Another centenarian in the Bronx is also busy knitting away…
Hundreds of caps were given out at hospitals. More as gifts on an Ezer Mizion Pampering Day for Women with Cancer, still more on an Ezer Mizion Winter Retreat. The faces of those who received a cap said it all. They saw the perfection. They saw the deep desire to bring a bit of sunshine. They saw the caring that crossed the oceans. And they felt enveloped in a cocoon that is the Jewish Family.
Along with cancer’s frightening medical repercussions, the dreaded disease brings with it a host of other challenges, and drains families’ physical, emotional and financial resources. The Ezer Mizion Cancer Support Division offers cancer patients and their families comfort, love and support, as well as an array of services tailored to meet their unique needs. These range from apartments, close to oncology centers, for the family to live in during the course of treatment, to hot meals both for a family member sitting at the bedside of a loved one and for the family remaining at home. From rides to the hospital and volunteers to do homework with the kids to professional therapy for the whole family. Retreats, trips, pampering days, birthday parties and Bar Mitzvahs round out the picture of Ezer Mizion holding the collective hand of the families as they travel the nightmare named Cancer.
