11 Mar THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM WHO SAVED MILLIONS

“Thank you for
donating almost $7
million to our Boca
Raton Synagogue
community.” Chaim
didn’t know what I
was talking about
when I called him to
thank him. $7 million? He had made a
generous contribution but only a fraction
of that enormous amount. Why was I
thanking him for something he didn’t
give?
Two months earlier, Chaim was visiting
Boca Raton and made an appointment to
meet with me. Before we began
discussing the topic he had come to meet
about, he casually asked me about the
BRS campus expansion. “Why is there no
energy or excitement, where is the
publicity and active campaign?” I shared
that we had been successful raising a
significant amount but had hit a wall and
encountered some challenges that were
holding us back. “Why not do a matching
campaign? Raise new money from
matchers who give on condition that the
local and global community respond

generously and match it.” I reflexively
shot him down and told him we don’t do
those kinds of things, that will never
work, it isn’t for us. He made one more
push, explaining why he thought it was a
good idea, and we quickly pivoted to his
topic.
For the rest of that day, I couldn’t stop
thinking about what he said. Maybe we
could do a matching campaign. Maybe it
would create an energy, buzz, community
buy-in, and excitement. Surely it was
worth a try. Fast forward less than two
months and not only did we meet our goal
of $6 million, we Baruch Hashem blew
past it and are so grateful that people
continue to give, as our work is not yet
done.
Chaim had “randomly” come to Boca and
“coincidentally” chose to meet when he
spontaneously, “happened” to raise the
idea of a matching campaign and the
result was an influx of almost $7 million
towards helping us build a center of
Jewish life and learning from which to
share Torah light and inspiration to the
world. Had I not alerted Chaim, he would

come upstairs after
120 and Hashem
would say, yasher
koach on raising
almost $7 million for
a community in
Florida you don’t
even live in.
One person can make
an enormous
difference with the
right word in the
right moment and we
never know which
word and which
moment.
Esther didn’t want to go to Achashveirosh
without being invited, she hesitated to
reveal her true identity and wanted to
continue to keep it a secret. Esther
preferred the passive route, the spectator
position. But thanks to Mordechai’s
encouragement and power of persuasion,
she mustered the courage and conviction
to enter without invitation, to speak
despite the risk. The result was one
woman saved an entire nation. The story
of Megillas Esther and the power of
Purim is the story and directive to go
from passive to active, from bystander
to bringing about redemption. Never
underestimate your power to positively
impact the world when you simply care
enough to step up instead of sitting
back.
In 1951, a 14-year-old Australian boy
named James Harrison had major
surgery to save his life, the removal of
one of his lungs. He was alive, thanks
in large part to a vast quantity of
transfused blood he had received. He
was hospitalized for three months but
when he came out, he was determined
to pay it forward by donating blood
himself. The problem was Australia’s
laws required blood donors to be at
least 18 years old. After turning 18,
Harrison made good on his promise,
and despite a fear of needles, he began
to donate blood regularly.
At the time, doctors in Australia were
struggling to figure out why thousands
of births in the country were resulting in
miscarriages, stillbirths or brain defects
for the babies. In 1967, they discovered
the babies were suffering from
Haemolytic Disease of the Newborn, or
HDN. The condition arises when a
woman with an Rh negative blood type
becomes pregnant with a baby who has

Rh positive blood, and the incompatibility
causes the mother’s body to reject the
fetus’s red blood cells.
Doctors in Australia discovered that a
very rare antibody in blood called Anti-D
could be used to make a lifesaving
medication that when given to mothers
whose blood is at risk of developing HDN
would keep the baby safe. Researchers
scoured blood banks to see whose blood
might contain this antibody and found a
donor in New South Wales named James
Harrison. Scientists asked him to
participate in an experimental Anti-D
program that turned out to be effective in
saving these babies.
For more than 60 years, Harrison donated
blood every single week and his plasma
was used to make millions of Anti-D
injections. Every ampoule of Anti-d ever
made in Australia has a piece of James in
it. Because about 17% of pregnant women
in Australia require the Anti-D injections,
the Australian blood service estimates
that Harrison has helped 2.4 million
babies in the country.
After donating 1,100 times, at 81 years
old, despite wanting to continue, James
Harrison was forced to retire from
donating blood. James Harrison,
appropriately nicknamed “The man with
the golden arm,” passed away last month
at the age of 88, one person who without
exaggeration saved millions of lives.
Don’t underestimate your ability to
impact others. Chaim contributed
millions of dollars to our community
without even knowing it. James Harrison
saved millions of babies in Australia.
Queen Esther, with one act of sacrifice
and courage, saved the Jewish people.
To the world, you may be one person, but
to one person, you may be what saves
their world.