The Renewal movement celebrates 1,000 Jews who’ve gone under the knife to save a life

Photos: Langsam Photography, Naftoli Goldgrab

Early Morning Action

ATfour thirty-two a.m. on a crisp Monday morning, the parking lot at the 7-Eleven convenience store located just off Route 9 in Old Bridge, New Jersey, is just starting to show signs of a new day’s activity after a long night. An elderly man walks out of the store, breakfast in hand, and nods gently to the fellow entering. Drivers park abruptly, make their hurried purchases, and then get back on the road. There are no exuberant greetings here, no loud phone calls; the customers seem to obey the unwritten rule of thou shall not disturb the peace so long as it lasts.

One midsize SUV in the parking lot, though, stands in proud defiance. Its speakers are humming with incessant ringing, audible even to those outside. The rule-breaking SUV’s driver, Rabbi Moshe Gewirtz, serves as the director of Renewal, the trailblazing organization that facilitates kidney transplants within the frum community, and the 7-Eleven is an almost daily early morning stop for him. It’s a 20-minute drive from his Marlboro, New Jersey, home and on the way to all the area’s major hospitals. Most importantly, the store is conveniently situated just 30 minutes from the frum enclave of Lakewood — making it the perfect spot for him to meet kidney donors who need a ride to the hospital, chauffeured to the 7-Eleven by a volunteer for Renewal, where Moshe awaits and takes them the rest of the way.

Today’s surgery, taking place in the Hackensack University Medical Center, a world-class hospital located a stone’s throw from Manhattan, is a milestone for the Renewal team — it’s the organization’s 1,000th lifesaving procedure. I join Moshe in his car so I can shadow him for the day and get a front-seat view how one Yid literally gives the gift of life to another.

At four thirty-five a.m., we’re back on the road, Waze set to Hackensack’s transplant unit, and two steaming cups of exceptionally strong brewed coffee ensconced in each of the cup holders. But aside from the java, there are no hints of the wee hour. Moshe’s phone is constantly dinging with notifications and calls coming in from members of Renewal’s team. A text message comes in from a coordinator to confirm tomorrow’s surgery appointments; he takes a call from Rabbi Menachem Friedman, the director of Renewal national, who is arranging rides for patients and family members to the various hospitals; Mendy Reiner, chairman of Renewal, is checking in on the status of today’s transplant; and Rabbi Josh Strum, Renewal’s director of outreach, wants to touch base about getting their army of volunteers proper instructions on where to deliver Renewal’s famous care packages.

In between the calls, Moshe finds a few minutes to share some of his background with me. The journey to his position as Renewal’s director started off with his own kidney donation. He had been working as a kiruv rabbi for the Monmouth Torah Links organization when he was first exposed to Renewal’s lifesaving activities.

“I arrived at a routine doctor’s appointment in Lakewood with several minutes to spare before the appointment,” he remembers, “and I saw some people gathered around a sign that said ‘Renewal Event.’ I was vaguely familiar with the organization and decided to listen in on what they were talking about.

“Two doctors were presenting on the concept of kidney donation, and I remember hearing them say that when someone donates a kidney, their health is uncompromised while for the recipient — the one in need of a kidney, it’s literally a new lease on life. They described it as replacing a broken car part with a brand new one — and one that will im yirtzeh Hashem last him many years.”

Intrigued, Moshe filled out the paperwork, had his cheek swabbed by the Renewal volunteer, and left to see his doctor. Sometime later, he was notified that he was actually a match, and subsequently donated his kidney to a young Jewish mother who was suffering from renal failure.

“I remember sitting in the hospital bed,” he says, “and my coordinator handed me thank you letters from my recipient’s family. I was too worn out to read them, but one of them stuck out.” It was a letter written in big, childish scrawl containing a simple message:

Thank you for saving my Mommy’s life, now she can be alive at my bar mitzvah next year. Thank you,

Dovid, age 12

The next year Moshe attended 13-year-old Dovid’s bar mitzvah.

Over time, Moshe became an active member of Renewal’s “donor circle,” volunteering and speaking for the organization along with other past kidney donors, and when Renewal was looking to expand its team, the organization reached out to the young, dynamic rabbi. Together with Chana Greenfeld, he served  for the past three years as a donor coordinator, helping ensure a smooth, pampering process for donors, and last year was tapped to serve as the organization’s director. Yet even as his responsibilities within the organization grew, Moshe never gave up his donor coordination position, something typical of Renewal staff members, who feel privileged to be on site in the hospital, stewarding donor and recipient through what can be a daunting monthslong process, culminating in the day of the transplant.