Danny Smotrich, right, gets a personal thank you for his contribution of clothes for premature newborns from Prof. Joseph Press, director of the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva, Israel.
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September 7, 2009
Danny Smotrich was born at 32 weeks, weighing a mere three pounds, five ounces. As his bar mitzva approached, the now very normal-sized seventh-grader hit upon the idea of helping early-arrival newborns like himself.
This past spring, the Titusville teen asked guests attending his bar mitzva celebration at Adath Israel Congregation, the Conservative synagogue in Lawrenceville, to bring items of clothing for premature babies.
In late August, he and his family celebrated again at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and in the course of their trip to Israel, they visited the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva outside of Tel Aviv. There, they presented a suitcase full of the doll-size garments to the hospital staff there.
“They had never seen so much stuff brought to their hospital from another country,” Danny said.
The idea for the project came from his father, Gary, a plastic surgeon in Lawrenceville. “I’ve made a number of trips to Israeli hospitals over the years, one of which was to Schneider,” said Dr. Smotrich. “It’s the only tertiary hospital in the Middle East dedicated to children and adolescents. It accepts patients from the West Bank, Jordan, and other countries, no questions asked.”
Danny contacted the hospital’s New York office to ask what they need. Aside from money, they mentioned art supplies and preemie clothes. Knowing the circumstances of his birth, he leaped at the latter idea. He also decided to donate part of the money he received as bar mitzva gifts.
During the family’s Aug. 24 visit to Schneider, the director of the hospital, Prof. Joseph Press, a pediatric rheumatologist, came out to meet Danny; his mom, Susan; and his dad and to thank Danny for his contribution.
In an e-mail to NJ Jewish News a few days after the visit, Danny said that he had a special feeling about this mitzva project because of his own birth.
“I was helping kids who were in the same situation as me,” he wrote. “The kids at Schneider are even smaller than I was because the director said that the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit handles kids that are born as early as 23 and 24 weeks. It was great to help out.”
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