It’s not always easy to smile especially after a round of chemotherapy, but Israel Support Fund was determined to brighten the lives of children with cancer when we sponsored a weekend of fun in park hotel in Netanya. Many had never spent time in a hotel – in keen contrast to the hospital beds they were used to. No, it wasn’t a major philanthropic project but, typical of the work of ISF, it was aimed at children who needed it and it’s something we intend to do again and again.

B’NAI BRAK, ISRAEL (Nov. 10, 2005) – Israel’s busiest maternity hospital is Ma’ayanei Yoshua (Fountains of Joshua) in the extremely Orthodox city of B’nai Brak, a city with the lowest average income and highest population density in the country. The hospital delivers over 7,500 babies per year in what had been impossibly difficult conditions.

This combination of poverty and need attracted Israel Support Fund, a charitable organization incorporated in the U.S. and headed by veteran terror-attack paramedic, Yisroel Stefansky, and Canadian journalist, Marshall Shapiro. They succeeded in interesting an evangelical Christian, medical philanthropy group, Assist International in funding a new, fully equipped Recovery Room complete with 15 Philips high tech monitoring devices and a central monitoring station.

Dedicated to the memory of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, the completed facility was opened by Pearl’s father, Dr. Judah Pearl, Rev. Bob Pagett, head of Assist Int., the two founders of ISF and Palo Alto, CA, cardiologist, Dr. Richard Gerber who was tireless in raising funds in his community to help make the $250,000.00 Recovery Room a reality.

In a moving statement, Dr. Pearl referred to his son’s last words, “I am a Jew”. Daniel, before he was brutally killed, managed to say that his grandfather was a Torah scholar in B’nai Brak. Dr. Pearl expressed his gratitude that his son was being honoured in a city so closely tied to his family history.

“We want to do more projects like this,” declared Rev. Pagett who has already organized and built fifteen medical facilities in remote parts of Africa and Asia. Both ISF and Assist Int. were on the lookout for vital projects to help institutions and individuals not in the mainstream and with limited or no access to organized charitable or government funding.

“We help those who don’t know how to ask,” said ISF President, Marshall Shapiro. “As a paramedic who attended at well over 50 suicide bombings and terror attacks,Yisroel Stefansky knows first hand just how the people of Israel suffer every single day and what their true needs are. Since he was 15 years old, he has saved lives and recovered body in Israel and even Toronto after the racist murder of a rabbi. His isn’t the view from some nice hotel or from a slick presentation,” Shapiro continued, “It’s the blood and guts knowledge of who needs what and when.”