A bright March afternoon outside the Bais Yaakov elementary school in suburban Baltimore and Rabbi Mendel Freedman is in his element. School’s out and Reb Mendel is the traffic conductor for a seemingly endless convoy of car pools in what resembles a frum version of the evacuation of Dunkirk in ’40. Watching him animatedly wave minivan after minivan toward the exit walkie-talkie in hand it’s easy to forget that he’s also the principal here of the country’s largest Orthodox girls’ elementary school outside Brooklyn and Lakewood. He makes small talk with the drivers as they go by but when one particular vehicle comes around the bend he perks up noticeably. “Good afternoon Mrs. Weiskind! Hi there Sarah Naomi!” Rabbi Freedman and young Sarah Naomi share something beyond their love for Bais Yaakov. Both have a good heart — and a new one at that. They’ve each been through one of the most risk-fraught operations in all of modern medicine — a heart transplant. The principal had his in 2008 and his student just months ago — and both are doing very well bli ayin hara. About 2 500 heart transplants are performed each year in the US so the odds of two recipients ending up in the same city let alone school are infinitesimal. But here they are.