Sadly we hear so often about the Israeli and Palestinian conflicts that we start to lose hope of any resolution. However, all it takes is a normal working Israeli mom coming to the rescue of a Palestinian mom and her baby boy to give us a much-needed reminder that there is always that glimmer of hope.
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According to Today, on June 2 when Ola Ostrowski-Zak arrived for her night shift in a hospital in Jerusalem she was met with the desperate relatives of 9-month-old Yamen. He had just been in a terrible car crash in the West Bank that killed his father and left his mother with critical head injuries. Luckily Yamen was securely strapped into his car seat and suffered just minor scrapes and bruises, however, the little boy was famished. The nursing staff had tried to offer him a bottle for seven hours but the exclusively breast-fed baby was refusing all their attempts.
Yamen’s aunts asked Ostrowski-Zak if she could find someone to help their hungry nephew nurse. Ostrowski-Zak went above and beyond her duties and took the baby in her arms and nursed Yamen herself. While the stunned aunts couldn’t believe a Jewish woman would have offered such help, the nurse said “I was emotional about this sad assumption” adding “I know any Jewish mother would have done the same.”
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With a now calm Yamen, Ostrowski-Zak explained how she felt a connection with the little boy and that “It felt pretty similar to feeding my own son Ayam.” So at the end of her shift, before returning home to her 18-month-old son, Ostrowski-Zak put a call out for volunteers on Facebook to come and take over the feeding of this nearly orphaned boy. Not only did she garner thousands of likes, women offered to drive more than 70 miles to ensure Yamen would not go hungry.
Ostrowski-Zak’s mothering instincts are a beautiful demonstration of all the good humans have to offer, and despite any political or religious differences, this is the news we need to focus on.
And today we celebrate...