THREE Brothers Donate Kidneys to Strangers

After Rabbi Freedman’s passing in 2017, his four sons sought an appropriate mitzvah to do jointly, in his memory. As their father had been the beneficiary of an organ transplant, the sons decided that it would be fitting if they each donated a kidney to save the lives of fellow Jews.

Aryeh Leib, the second Freedman son, is a Baltimore businessman and community leader, and founder of Misaskim of Maryland.

On July 24, 2019, he donated a kidney at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. The recipient was a Boro Park woman in her fifties who had suffered from Kidney failure for many years.

On Dec 19, 2019, it was the turn of the youngest brother, Rabbi Mayer Freedman. Mayer is a kiruv rabbi based in Atlanta, Georgia, but he flew up to NYU in Manhattan to donate his kidney. The receipt that was a member of the Syrian Jewish community, a gentleman in his late sixties.

Yesterday, May 27, 2021, Shmuel Freedman, a nursing home executive in the New York area became the next Freedman brother to donate a kidney to a total stranger. Incidentally, Shmuel also operates a sizebale diyalsis clinic, so he is intimately familiar with the suffering of kidney failure patients. The successful transplant was concluded earlier today at Montefiore Hospital. The donor is a 73 year old Brooklyn resident.

This morning at the hospital, when the recipient learned  the identity of his donor, he was overcome with emotion, and wept unabashedly. In an incredible display of hashgacha, the recipient revealed that he was an old friend of the late Rabbi Mendel Freedman- father of his donor, and in whose memory this undertaking was launched!

Renewal, a unique organization dedicated to facilitating and promoting kidney donation, arranged all of the Freedman brother kidney donations. According to Rabbi Moshe Gewirtz, a representative of Renewal, no one has ever heard of three brothers donating kidneys, and all to strangers, to whit!

The only Freedman brother who has not yet donated a kidney, is the oldest brother, Rabbi Paysach Freedman, CEO of Chaim V’Chessed in Jerusalem. Paysach Freedman, too, has applied to donate a kidney. He tells Matzav.com, ‘I am Incredibly proud of my brothers. Their selfless acts of kindness to save the lives of total strangers should be an inspiration to us all.’

The Freedman brothers are all confident that their father is having nachas from his lofty place in Olam Haba. And, they each add, they couldn’t have taken this unusual step with the steadfast support of their wives. Lastly, they aver that their mother, Mrs. Zipporah Freedman is their role model in selfless dedication to helping other Jews. Paysach Freedman reveals that, as a matter of fact, his mother, too, has applied to serve as a kidney donor!

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{Matzav.com}