A birthday gift: Israeli woman donates kidney to Gaza boy
Idit Harel Segal, who donated a kidney to a Palestinian child from the Gaza Strip, holds the letter she wrote to the boy. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Idit Harel Segal was turning 50, and she had chosen a gift: she was going to give one of her own kidneys to a stranger.
The kindergarten teacher from northern Israel, a proud Israeli, hoped her choice would set an example of generosity in a land of perpetual conflict. She was spurred by memories of her late grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, who told her to live meaningfully and by Jewish tradition, which holds that there’s no higher duty than saving a life.
So Segal contacted a group that links donors and recipients, launching a nine-month process to transfer her kidney to someone who needed one.
