PHOTO BY NATALIE JACOBS
FEATURE
Tzipi Meets Her Match Two Chabad Hebrew Academy teachers establish a rare bond through sickness and health BY NATALIE JACOBS
B
ack in March, I shared the story of Tzipi Tivon and her team of kidney transplant advocates from Chabad Hebrew Academy. That story started when Tzipi was diagnosed with end stage renal failure back in January 2016, on her birthday. This portion of Tzipi’s story starts in a second-grade classroom on an uncharacteristically overcast day, August 2, 2017. Tzipi, Rochel Smoller (in whose classroom we sit) and Sheryl Daija are gathered around a circular table in chairs made for tiny bodies.
Before we go any further, a reminder of how everyone got here. It was late 2016 when Rabbi Josef Fradkin, head of Chabad Hebrew Academy, shared details of Tzipi’s condition with a parent, Rafael James. Rafael’s son had Tzipi for Hebrew and after hearing about her illness, he felt compelled to do what he could to help her situation. The typical waiting period for a kidney through Sharp’s transplant registry is 7-10 years, Tzipi was told when she got on their list last year. Tzipi was on
dialysis by the time Rafi was informed of her condition. No one else at the school knew, and Tzipi continued to teach while receiving the treatments. When they found out, Rafi and wife Sheryl pulled together a committee to find a kidney for Tzipi. The committee included Rochel the second-grade Judaic teacher, and many others from around the community. “We spoke about it and said there is no room for failure,” Sheryl recalls. Rabbi Fradkin put the committee in
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