Livingston, NJ–For the 11th straight year, the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School held its semiannual Blood Drive on December 24. The Blood Drive Committee is student-led, with Co-Presidents Elisa Candelario, Katy Candelario and Anna Kaplan assisted by a group of 30 high school students, and advised by faculty member and guidance counselor Rabbi Richard Kirsch.

This year the Blood Drive, held on the campus of RKYHS, was co-sponsored by Community Blood Services of Montvale. Approximately 80 people came out to donate, and 58 pints of blood were collected. With each pint able to save three lives, the students are proud to say they helped save the lives of 174 people.

The Blood Drive Committee was originally the brain child of the late RKYHS principal, Rabbi Abraham Wahrhaftig, who emphasized the importance of donating blood as a vital chesed initiative. Rabbi Kirsch and his Committee have been organizing and running these events since Wahrhaftig’s tenure as principal.

“We are proud to continue the initiative begun by the late Rabbi Wahrhaftig. Ironically, at the end of his life, he needed donations of blood and I like to think we may have helped him, even if only in the slightest of ways,” said Kirsch.

The next RKYHS Blood Drive will be held in the spring of 2015. All are welcome.

By Jill Kirsch