Bernie Moerdler was enjoying his gap year in Israel. Studying at Migdal HaTorah in Modiin, Moerdler was able to combine his two passions. One was the philosophy-based approach of his Torah studies at Migdal, under the leadership of Rabbi Darrel Ginzberg. The second was the opportunity to spend his afternoons at a laboratory at Bar Ilan University exploring new medical devices.
Upon returning home before Pesach amid the coronavirus pandemic, Moerdler knew he would be looking for activities to supplement his Israel-based Zoom studies. He reached out to his former classmate at Fair Lawn High School, Daniel Mezhiborsky, with an idea. During their junior and senior years, in addition to being active in the Jewish Student Union, the two had worked together to create a full-scale flight simulator that was praised by a local congressman and Verizon. Utilizing their engineering skills and in light of the serious paucity of protective gear for first responders throughout the country, the friends decided to initiate a project to produce face shields on 3-D printers.
Through a GoFundMe campaign, donors in Indiana supplied Moerdler and Mezhiborsky with funds for their initial equipment. With the permission of the shul’s spiritual leader, Rabbi Jeremy Donath, and shul president, Mark Moerdler, Bernie’s father, the duo was given room for their project in the new Congregation Darchei Noam building, which was recently purchased for the expansion of the shul. Currently, they are working with five 3-D printers, a high-powered laser cutter and bleach baths. As each printer is capable of producing eight shields in eight to 10 hours, the hope is that they will be able to produce up to 40 shields per day, including the laser cutting, sanitizing and packing into sealed bags. In their production, they are carefully following the guidelines of the authorized medical labs.
To date, Moerdler and Mezhiborsky have reached out to St. Barnabas Medical Center, the Fair Lawn Rescue Squad and Fair Lawn Fire Department. Contact with the Fair Lawn Volunteer Ambulance Corps was facilitated by Fair Lawn Council Member Marc Zharnest. Currently, the partners have 400 orders, which they hope to fill for the Paramus, Paterson and Glen Rock communities. They will also be reaching out to the state of California, where protective gear is in very short supply for traveling nurses.
As their goal is to produce 1,000 high-quality face shields, the duo wishes to thank those who have donated so far and to turn to the community to lend further support to their project. For further information and donation opportunities, visit bmoerdler.com/face-shields. If you work in health care and are in need of a shield please reach out at the same website.
By Pearl Markovitz
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