One of the families in our neighborhood is a model of Israeli accomplishment. Both parents are successful professionals. They also represent the fulfillment of a Zionist aspiration: mixing of the Diasporas. One parent traces roots to Buchara (Uzbekistan) and Halab (also called Aleppo, in Syria). The other to Hungary. Two children are polite, and seemed destined for good things. The older was a classmate of Tamar in elementary school. She was the princess of the class: pretty, with a court of friends who followed her lead, and the envy of other girls.
A few months ago, the girl, now a young woman, a graduate of the IDF and a university student, had a routine dental procedure. A sore in her mouth did not heal. Another neighbor, an oncologist, urged a blood test. The results were not good. She has a form of leukemia that resisted conventional treatment.
Yet another neighbor, a personality on Israeli radio, talked about her and another young Israeli in a similar situation on his morning program. He called on his audience to go to local clinics for a blood test that would be used to select appropriate donors of bone marrow.
Thousands gave a bit of their blood for the test. The samples went for genetic matching to a laboratory in North America. The lab work would cost one million shekels ($250,000). It was not covered by the Health Maintenance Organization or any other insurance. Another neighbor passed the word, and we prepared our checkbook. Then we heard that a corporate client of girl's mother would cover the cost.
The genetic matching encountered the down side of ethnic mixture. The combination of Bucharan, Halabi, and Hungarian backgrounds is not common. They produced attractive children, but not those with lots of other Israelis close to them on important genetic traits. The girl's brother was as close as they found, and his match was less than desirable. Lacking anything better, physicians are doing the procedure and hoping for the best.
Israeli Jews do not "cross" their fingers. We are "holding" our fingers.