Public Service Announcements and Self-Promotion

Three topics to share with you this morning; some PSAs along with a little shameless self-promotion (for a good cause):

1.  Over the past couple of days I've noticed a young woman at the bus stops in my town handing out informational brochures for the Halachic Organ Donor Society (HODS) which reminded me that maybe it's time to mention it again here. 

Organ donation is a touchy subject for most people as it is, understandably, a tad unsettling to consider someone else making use of body parts that we are, well, sort of attached to.  However, because of a lack of information (and often a surplus of incorrect information) many people in the Jewish community are particularly unwilling to even consider becoming an organ donor. 

While I've written about this organization in the past, I strongly encourage everyone to go to the HODS site and review the facts.  Many leading community Rabbis and halachic authorities are strongly in favor of organ donation within the framework/guidelines created by this excellent organization.  Find out the facts... send a donation if you can (money!... please don't mail in organs)... and most importantly, get registered in their database to become an organ donor.  You'll even get a spiffy little card like this to carry around:

2.  OK, next topic... it's almost summer again, and once again Magen David Adom in Israel (Red Star of David) is dangerously low on all types of blood.  Every major Israeli city has designated places to make a quick and easy donation (i.e.hospitals and blood banks), as well as mobile blood collection vans that are typically parked near bus stations and busy pedestrian areas. 

Israeli citizens who donate blood receive 'blood insurance' for their immediate family for an entire year, and tourists get... well, they get the satisfaction of having done an important good deed.  So if you haven't donated blood here in the past 6 months or more, go do it!!!

3.  I posted a great poster a couple of weeks ago that poked fun at the world's disproportionate scrutiny of the goings-on in Israel while they tend to ignore more emergent situations such as the genocide going on in Sudan (Darfur).  As much as putting that poster on my site made me feel like I'd done my part, I had the nagging sense that I could (and should) be doing more.

Lo and behold, almost immediately my old friend Yonah called me up to tell me that he and a bunch of other middle-aged white guys musicians were putting together a blues/soul/Motown/R&B band to play in an upcoming benefit concert for Darfur refugees in Israel... and asked if I wanted to dust off my trombone and join them.  I shot back a quick email saying, "Sure... whatever...let me know when it is" and basically forgot about it.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks and I start getting emails with set lists and rehearsal schedules.  Yikes... these guys really meant to do this thing!!!  Now where did I leave that trombone?

Long story short... if you're free Monday evening (June 11th) and feel like enjoying the gorgeous weather we've been having, why not come to an outdoor concert in Jerusalem's trendy German Colony to benefit Sudanese refugees?  While I can't make any promises about the polished excellence of the act, supporting such an important cause should certainly justify an evening out.  Heck, it can't be any worse than giving blood, right? 

And besides, if enough bloggers (and blog readers) show up to this thing, maybe the talking and catching up that always ensues at blog-meets will drown out whatever we're doing on stage.  :-)

Here are the details (we're the first act; 'Settle Down', so be there by 8:00!:

Click to embiggen.

[Update:  Several people have requested to know how they can make a donation since they won't be able to attend the concert, so here's the deal:

Option one: 

Send a check to:

Merkaz HaMagshimim Hadassah
Dor Dor V'Dorshav 7A
German Colony, 93117
Jerusalem
ISRAEL

(Specify in the check memo "For Sudanese Refugees")

~or~

Option Two

Call 972 2 561 9165 Ext. 200 and tell Dina you want to donate to the Sudanese refugee fund.  She will take your credit card # right over the phone.  She's an English speaker so don't worry about a language barrier.