Assuta Ashdod Midwife Donates Kidney on Holocaust Memorial Day

As Israelis all over the country come together today to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, one midwife based at Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital decided to mark the day in an extra special way.

Hani Rabinowitz has spent 18 years bringing life into the world and this year she decided to also help preserve life - by donating a kidney specifically on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Hani said, "Our role in the world can be much more important and greater than we think. We don't live only for ourselves, but we must think of others and of the Jewish People. There is no path or mission more important than giving life, each according to his abilities and skills.

“As it is written ‘He who saves one life, it is as if he saved the entire world,’” said the mother of five and grandmother of 28. "That's how I was raised and that's how I'm raising my children and grandchildren."

"I decided to choose the profession of midwifery because of its mission and the meaning of the role of the midwife to be the one who helps bring the baby out into the world for the first time in his life, but in recent years I felt that I could and wanted more. After thinking, I decided to fulfill my dream and donate a kidney.”

After two years of preparations and as the date of the transplant approached, Hani specifically requested that the procedure take place on Holocaust Memorial Day.

“On a day that symbolizes perhaps most of all the attempted extermination of the people of Israel, a day of great sadness, this day will also be a day of giving life,” she said. “This is another victory over the Nazis."

“This is another victory over the Nazis."

"I know that my grandmother who hid in the basement for five years because of the Nazis felt a great victory today,” she added.

Hani entered the operating room today at noon and all of us at Assuta Ashdod are wishing her a healthy and speedy recovery.