Filling a Need: A Hillel drive at Ohio University last February added 750 potential bone marrow donors to the Gift of Life database. Image by Ohio University

Rabbi Yossi Kastan, the head of a Jewish day school in suburban Baltimore, says he’s “always wanted to change the world.”

Last week, he did precisely that for an ailing 2-year-old girl.

On Sept. 21, the day after Rosh Hashanah as well as the Fast of Gedaliah, Kastan donated his bone marrow to the girl, who is battling an immune systems disorder.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

The story starts in October 2018, when the Berman Hebrew Academy’s head swabbed his cheek to serve as an example for the students at his Rockville school during a bone marrow registry drive. He was modeling the proper technique for a lower school STEM event, “DNA and Me,” for the Gift of Life Registry based in Florida.

On July 24, he got a call that he was a match for the girl. Two months later he launched the Jewish New Year with his life-saving donation.

“I’ve always wanted to change the world, to contribute something positive to people’s lives,” Kastan said in a message to the school community.

“With maturity and humility, I prayed for an opportunity to change even one person’s life – to believe that I may hold something, that I may have some gift, that this person may need.

“I was able to give a second chance at life to this child and hope to her family. By giving her the ‘gift of life,’ I received the gift of living mine more fully,” he said. “Each of us is a match for someone who needs something we have.”

The post Baltimore Jewish day school principal donates bone marrow to 2-year-old girl after joining registry during school drive appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

$90 → $180 $180 → $360

$360 → $720

Other amount