New York – Last week a major New York snowstorm was treated as little more than an inconvenience for the chronically ill and disabled teen participants of Chai Lifeline’s Wish at the Wall trip, thanks to the dedication of El Al Airlines and a phalanx of dedicated volunteers in the Five Towns/Far Rockaway and Brooklyn communities.
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The group, which also included a parent guest of each teen, medical staff, volunteers, and Rabbi Shlomo Crandall, director of Chai Lifeline’s Midwest region, was already on the plane when JFK Airport was officially closed.
Eyal Cohen, El Al’s JFK station manager, and flight manager Gregory Pollack had made sure the group had VIP treatment from the moment they entered the airport. They had seated the group first on the plane, taking care to assure each teen’s comfort and storing their wheelchairs in a special bin that would be unloaded immediately when the plane arrived in Tel Aviv. An additional attendant was added to the flight. Three volunteer paramedics, Beinish Mandel, Shammai Goldstein and Michael Vatch, and Camp Simcha alumnus Eli Stamler had been on hand to assist the group.
Everything was ready – except permission to fly. After several hours in the plane, passengers heard the announcement they were dreading: the airport was closed, and the plane would not take off.
El Al personnel they made sure that the group deplaned in comfort, with wheelchairs waiting at the door. But that was only the beginning. Nachman Maimon, Chai Lifeline’s program director, had decided not to leave the airport when the plane was delayed.
“What can we do to help?”
When it looked like the plane might not make it off the ground, Maimon placed a call to Dr. Norman Blumenthal, Chai Lifeline’s director of crisis intervention services, and a Five Towns resident. Without hesitation, Blumenthal put several homes at the group’s disposal. They would all have places to sleep.
After consultation, Maimon and the medics decided it was safer to keep the group at the airport. Another call went out, this time to Shaul and Batsheva Katz, who regularly offer their home for Friends ‘n Fun weekend escapades for Chai Lifeline children. In the basement of their expansive home, the Katzes have 50 ready air mattresses.
“I need a favor,” Nachman began. He didn’t have to explain.
“Shaul was ready to drive them here himself, but we already had another volunteer who was picking up food at Dunkin Donuts. Shaul was waiting at his door when our volunteer drove up.”
The next challenge was getting the mattresses and refreshments to the gate where Wish at the Wall, along with the rest of El Al Flight 008 was getting ready to deplane.
“El Al said, ‘Tell us what you need and we’ll do it,” recalled Maimon. “They made sure everything made it to the gate.” By the time the children were taken off the plane, El Al had secured an empty gate and an ad-hoc hotel was springing up. Mattresses were already being inflated, and the airline sent blankets and supplies. The medics worked to help the disabled teens settle into their makeshift beds before departing in the early morning hours. Nachman was saying goodbye to the medics when his phone rang again. Another group of volunteers were planning breakfast.
Yehuda Berko and Mark Glicksman, both Camp Simcha alumni and year-round volunteers, and El Al personnel worked together to bring a full breakfast to the group. When it arrived, the amount of food far outweighed the ability of the group to finish.
“We invited everyone to share what we had. We fed the El Al staff, and then El Al announced that kosher food was available at our gate.
“It was a real treat for kosher passengers,” continued Maimon. “El Al was offering vouchers for breakfast, but there was no kosher food available in the terminal. We were delighted to feed all these people, who had spent a night sleeping in chairs at the airport.”
The 13-hour delay was a blessing in disguise for one participant, who realized she left an important medicine back home in the Midwest. An early morning call to her doctor led to a phoned-in prescription to a CVS in Far Rockaway. Volunteer Yankie Kleinkaufman brought it to JFK. Once again, El Al came to the rescue, delivering the medicine directly to the plane and the young lady.
As the plane lifted off, Nachman Maimon prepared to leave the airport.
“Even people who know Chai Lifeline and its work were shocked at what we did last night,” said the exhausted but elated Maimon. “The snowstorm grounded every plane at JFK, but our volunteers and El Al transformed a disaster into an adventure for Wish at the Wall.”
“It wasn’t the way we anticipated the first night would be, but we all slept and ate a gourmet breakfast before we got back on the plane,” said Rabbi Crandall. “We’re looking forward for an equally eventful, but perhaps less surprising, ten days in Israel,” he emailed as he took his seat for the second time.
Mee kiAmcha