“What is Ezer Mizion? Is it the Jewish Bone Marrow Registry?”
“I think it’s an organization that helps cancer patients. When my sister lived in Israel, her son was in the hospital off and on for months with leukemia. Ezer Mizion couldn’t do enough for the family. Meals at the hospital, rides, a beautiful apartment for the family to live so they wouldn’t have to travel for treatments. And let me tell you, that apartment was housed in a gan eden (garden of eden) for kids with everything a child could want including a petting zoo. You know, they even took all the kids on a chol hamoed trip
“I always thought Ezer Mizion was an organization for special children. When my cousin moved to Israel , she was so excited to see all the programs available for her autistic child.”
“A few years ago, we were visiting Israel and I noticed they were having an inauguration of a mental health building. So many g’dolim (sages) came. Isn’t it an organization for mental health?”
As you may have guessed, Ezer Mizion is all of the above and much, much more with its countless divisions.
Refaeli is a personable young man with Downs Syndrome. Ezer Mizion has helped him in numerous ways and he has become part of the Ezer Mizion family. In fact, he has been trained as an Ezer Mizion volunteer upon whom others can rely. A very special day was coming up. Rafaeli’s 31st birthday. Ezer Mizion wanted to make it very special indeed and that is why the local police precinct was contacted and Rafaeli, an admirer of the police from way back, became Policeman for a Day. He wore a policeman’s shirt, was introduced to key people who all wished him a hearty mazel tov, was presented with a birthday party around the conference table with gifts and good wishes and even rode in a police car, waving all the way. ‘It’s a dream come true,’ he thanked each one as his day as a policeman came to an end.
Two holocaust survivors have dreamed for thirty years of touching the stones of the kosel. The couple was residing in a nursing home in Israel but way too far to make the trip on their own. Impossible. Their dream would have to remain a dream. But then an Ezer Mizion staff member got wind of their dream. ‘Impossible’ only means that there are numerous logistics to tackle. And so one after the other, problems were solved until the impossible dream was scheduled for the following week. Joy. Euphoria. Jubilation. None of these words can aptly describe their emotions as they began to believe they would really be going. The trip was too good not to be shared. They offered each of their fellow nursing home residents the opportunity of sending along a note to be placed in the Wall. And on The Day, standing at the site of their thirty-year-old dream, they slowly, bit by bit lifted their hands in awe, gently touching the stones of this holy wall. Each of the many notes found a place in a crevice of this ancient, towering symbol of Jewish history. And then the tears began to flow, together with a lifetime of prayer ascending to their Father in heaven. Finally, they had come home.
What is Ezer Mizion? It is like a devoted mother, generously dispensing practical assistance, therapeutic support, professional mentoring and advice…and the fulfillment of dreams.
