A new project of Yad Sarah is ready to help everyone experience the trip of a lifetime. 

From the lending one lone vaporizer in 1976, Yad Sarah, has grown to the largest voluntary organization in Israel. Today, 7000 volunteers are providing a spectrum of free or nominal-cost services designed to make life easier for the sick, disabled and elderly and their families. Israelis save several hundred million dollars per year in hospitalization and medical costs.  Yad Sarah's mission is to keep the ill and the elderly in their homes and out of institutions as long as possible. Being with their families is most conducive to healthy recuperation, both physically and emotionally, plus, it costs much less.

In addition to all kinds of medical equipment for newborns to hospice patients, and everyone and everything in between, the thousands of volunteers provide transportation services and day care centers for the disabled.  Drop-in centers and minimum-charge dental clinics for the elderly provide constant care for those in need. Personal computerized emergency alarms monitored 24 hours a day have proven to be life savers. Guidance & exhibition centers help disabled people choose the devices most suited to their needs. One out of two Israeli families use their services each year.  

Over the decades, Yad Sarah staff members have become experts in recuperation and rehabilitation equipment. The stories are endless. One recent and special story is how Meir Greenwald adapted a special wheelchair for Shai Ben Israel. Ben Israel was victim of a terror attack. His car was totaled, crushing him inside. After special emergency teams cut the twisted metal away, Ben Israel was left with 3 crushed limbs, and could not bend either leg to sit in a regular wheelchair. Greenwald came to the hospital and within days, had a creative and comfortable wheel chair ready to go. Though walking with a limp, Ben Israel is back to work today, after months of physical therapy and healing. 

Off the lobby of the main center, which is located in the Yefeh Nof neighborhood in Jerusalem, Israel, is a new theater where Yad Sarah founder Uri Lupolianski and Israeli actor Dvir Bendak share in a new informational film introducing visitors to the new visitor’s center. From the theater, tours leave to see highlights of a few of the services offered in the multi-story modern building. 

Watching the young women working at the 24/7 emergency call center, seeing Eli Cohen with his therapy patients, or Helen Green, nutritionist and home economics teacher show off her individually prepared fresh meals and treats, it is hard not to be impressed with the variety and expertise of the volunteers.

The Rabbinical Council of America Israel (RCA) took a tour of Yad Sarah to learn about its new initiative to enable disabled individuals and their families to visit Israel. The RCA tour tour ran overtime, as the group stopped repeatedly to speak with neighbors and friends, who were either receiving services or were volunteers.

Until now, this Israeli non-profit was best known for its lending of medical and rehabilitative equipment on a short-term basis, free of charge to anyone who is in need of help. Not just Israeli residents, but also visitors regularly borrow crutches and wheelchairs. 

However, with its new service, tourists can arrange to be picked up at the airport in special vans, and taken to hotels or apartments prepared for them with the necessary medical support equipment. Special tour guides and tours are available to comfortably see the Kosel or Masada and more. 

A tour of Yad Sarah should be on everyone's list when visiting Yerushalayim.  What's the cost? What's the catch? The tour is free. Some services require a deposit. But you can get caught up marveling at the resources one institution can offer. From a shul, to a gym to a cafeteria, a seeming endless list of facilities are available. 

Many former Marylanders serve as volunteers. The Henry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, a major supporter of Yad Sarah, has a prominent stone memorial in the front courtyard in memory of Henry and Jeanette Weinberg z"l.