Yad Sarah
Encyclopedia
Yad Sarah is currently the largest Israeli
national volunteer organization, aiding disabled, elderly and housebound people and aimed at making home care possible. It provides more than 244,000 loans of medical and rehabilitative home-care equipment each year, saving the country's economy $300 million annually in medical costs by eliminating the need for expensive hospital stays and institutional care,
Yad Sarah has 104 branches throughout Israel run by more than 6,000 volunteers.
in the home of Rabbi Uri Lupolianski
in Jerusalem. In the early 1970s, Lupolianski was a high school teacher with a growing family. One of his children needed a vaporizer during the winter, which his wife managed to borrow. Discovering that such items were hard to obtain, Lupolianski decided to start his own gemach by buying a few vaporizers to lend to others. People who heard about his gemach began dropping off other items which are only used for a short time, such as crutches, walkers and wheelchairs. With seed money from his father, Lupolianski expanded his gemach into a nationwide, non-profit, lending organization.
In 1994, Yad Sarah was awarded the Israel Prize
, for its special contribution to society and the State of Israel.
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
national volunteer organization, aiding disabled, elderly and housebound people and aimed at making home care possible. It provides more than 244,000 loans of medical and rehabilitative home-care equipment each year, saving the country's economy $300 million annually in medical costs by eliminating the need for expensive hospital stays and institutional care,
Yad Sarah has 104 branches throughout Israel run by more than 6,000 volunteers.
History
Yad Sarah started as a gemachGemach
Gemach is a Jewish free-loan fund which subscribes to both the positive Torah commandment of lending money and the Torah prohibition against charging interest on a loan. Unlike bank loans, gemach loans are interest-free, and are often set up with easy repayment terms.Gemachs operate in most Jewish...
in the home of Rabbi Uri Lupolianski
Uri Lupolianski
Uri Lupolianski was mayor of Jerusalem from 2003 to 2008 and founder of Yad Sarah.-Biography:Born in Haifa, Israel in 1951, Lupolianski studied at the Yavne School in Haifa and then attended Yeshivat Hanegev. He served in the Israel Defense Forces as a paramedic and worked as a teacher at a...
in Jerusalem. In the early 1970s, Lupolianski was a high school teacher with a growing family. One of his children needed a vaporizer during the winter, which his wife managed to borrow. Discovering that such items were hard to obtain, Lupolianski decided to start his own gemach by buying a few vaporizers to lend to others. People who heard about his gemach began dropping off other items which are only used for a short time, such as crutches, walkers and wheelchairs. With seed money from his father, Lupolianski expanded his gemach into a nationwide, non-profit, lending organization.
In 1994, Yad Sarah was awarded the Israel Prize
Israel Prize
The Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
, for its special contribution to society and the State of Israel.
External links
- Yad Sarah - official website,
- יד שרה / Yad Sarah - official website,
- Friends of Yad Sarah - official website of Friends of Yad Sarah, Inc.