Temple Congregants Get Together to Donate 15 Pints of Blood

congregants can often be found together in the family sanctuary, to listen as Rabbi Michael Moskowitz discusses the Reform synagogue’s values. Friday, congregants could be found together at the temple putting one of those values to use, in donating 15 pints of blood to the American Red Cross.

“We believe that we’re a leader in Tikkun Olam — taking the opportunity to help others — and we say to our congregation that if you’ve saved one life, you’ve saved the world,” said Moskowitz, one of three rabbis at the temple. “We’ve been organizing this twice annually at (the temple) for, I don’t know how many years, but we always have at least one of them right here at the temple for people to come donate.”

Mitch Kline, a member of the temple who was among the first to donate blood Tuesday, said he made the drive from Clarkston to donate at Temple Shir Shalom and chatted with Moskowitz afterward.

“It’s a good, friendly congregation here,” Moskowitz said. “We take the idea of Tikkun Olam to heart.”

Temple board member Richard Scheck said that although he wasn’t totally satisfied with the final tally, mentioning that the temple donated 22 pints of blood last year, he felt as though the congregation had helped to “save a few lives today.” The drop in participation could be due to traveling and school being out of session, he said, a thought the the Red Cross backed up.

In May and June, while demand for blood products remained steady, donations were at the lowest level the Red Cross has seen during this timeframe in more than a dozen years, according to a statement released Monday.

“This has been an especially busy year for the Red Cross, as we’ve given help and hope to people affected by deadly tornadoes, floods, wildfires and other storms,” Shaun Gilmore, president of Red Cross Biomedical Services, said in the statement. “But there’s another, more personal, kind of disaster that can happen to any of us at any time if we need blood and it’s not available.”

To learn more about blood donation opportunities, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733 2767).