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Arutz Sheva 

With great sadness, we regret to inform you of the passing of Rabbi Yeshayahu Heber, OB”M, founder and chairman of the Gift of Life (Matnat Chaim) NGO. He passed away on Thursday, the 29^th of Nissan.

He was 55 years old

Rabbi Heber was admitted to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem early last week with difficulty breathing on his own and constantly being in need of oxygen support. After his condition deteriorated and he experienced further difficulty in breathing, he was connected to a ventilator.

“The ICU and nephrology specialists who monitored his condition as a person who underwent a kidney transplant, treated him day and night,” the Hadassah Hospital said in a statement on Thursday evening. “The hospital’s management was in contact with his family and was constantly updating it as the disease progressed. Unfortunately, the condition of the rabbi was serious and the coronavirus disease and its complications overwhelmed him. The ICU’s doctors had to pronounce him dead after prolonged CPR efforts.”

Matnat Chaim is an organization dedicated to encouraging healthy volunteers donate kidneys to patients who require a transplant.

Some 800 kidney donations were made thanks to the activities of Rabbi Heber, who himself underwent a kidney transplant.

Rabbi Heber was born in Tel Aviv and studied at the Ponivez Yeshiva. In 2009 he founded the Gift of Life Association after he had to undergo a kidney transplant. In 2014, Rabbi Heber was awarded the “Volunteering Award of the President of Israel” for his activities promoting and actively seeking living kidney donors. In March of 2016 he received an award from the Minister of Health over his volunteering activities.

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