RIVKAH LAUFER BIKUR CHOLIM
&
THE NEXT GENERATION:

HISTORY
For over 40 years, the Rivkah Laufer Bikur Cholim has answered the Jewish community's call to support those in sickness and health both financially and emotionally.

Fran Laufer and Miriam Lubling created this outstanding organization together with Belle Brodt Sorotzkin and Pearl Pinter. Fran Laufer, a Holocaust survivor and renowned speaker on Jewish causes, has presided over this remarkable charity organization from its inception. Sara Teicher has been Fran Laufer's able partner in this amazing endeavor, along with so many hardworking volunteers and hospital liaisons: Jean Gluck, Rosanne Rosenthal, Regina Peterseil, Lorraine Nelson, Gayle Yashar, Esther Weinberger, and many more.

Over the years, Rivkah Laufer Bikur Cholim has provided drivers for transportation to doctors, built an ambulance shelter, purchased lifesaving heart equipment and new radios for the ambulance in Hashmonaim, furnished a beautiful hospitality room in Rusk NYU Hospital, paid medical bills based on need, arranged for kosher food in hospitals, provided telephone assistance, moral support, encouragement, kind words, and valuable advice to all who seek their help, provided funds for Pesach for the needy, distributed electric menorahs for Shabbos in hospitals, planned holiday parties in nursing homes, maintained apartments near hospitals for Shabbos and Yom Tov, purchased a van to transport developmentally disabled adults in Jerusalem, donated a wing in a convalescent home in Israel, helped to set up emergency clinics in the West Bank (far from a hospital), maintained a Shabbos apartment near Hadassah Hospital, aided victims of terrorism, donating defibrillators and lifesaving heart equipment to Hatzalah's Bikur Cholim Hospital in Jerusalem and for Nof Ayalon, built a state-of-the-art playground at a Jerusalem preschool for children with special needs, aided in establishing a medical center in the town of Arad in the Negev, and much more! The Rivkah Laufer Bikur Cholim also has an extensive network of referrals that are of great help for a patient who is adjusting to dealing with a newly diagnosed illness and the new realities that will be part of the new daily routines, both for the patient and for the family.

The Rivkah Laufer Bikur Cholim organization's volunteers visit patients in the hospital and arrange for home-cooked Shabbos meals, accommodations for family members to stay near the hospital, bedside refrigerators, financial support, and almost anything nonmedical in nature to facilitate the recovery of a patient. Doctors agree that medical attention and treatment is only half of the recovery process; the other half is contingent upon the psychological mindset of the patient. The Rivkah Laufer Bikur Cholim offers the patient the emotional support needed to have this partnership with the physician to heal the nonmedical aspect of the illness.

The Rivkah Laufer Bikur Cholim has no operating expenses; it is entirely a volunteer organization and every dollar that is raised will go to underwrite medical and ancillary expenses of the patients.

THE NEXT GENERATION
We are continuing the path of these amazing women who are our mothers and grandmothers by forming a Young Leadership that will be The Next Generation of volunteers for this noble chessed. Our goal is to raise necessary funds and get The Next Generation involved in the day-to-day activities of this reputable organization. Along with a dynamic group of women (who include daughters and granddaughters of founding members of the organization), The Next Generation committee has been established by co-chair's Jaclyn Glicksman and Suri Sternberg Rozner. Jaclyn is a granddaughter of Fran Laufer, an original founder of Rivkah Laufer Bikur Cholim, and daughter of Gayle Yashar, an active volunteer. Suri's husband Daniel is also a grandchild of Mrs. Laufer. Although there are other family and work commitments that pull them in different directions, Jaclyn and Suri are committed to meeting the goals of Rivkah Laufer Bikur Cholim - The Next Generation by raising awareness and money through fun and interesting events and enlisting volunteers.

If you're interested in getting involved or hearing more about our events please contact us at info@RLBikurCholim.org