PEACE with Penny SEASON 4 Penny S. Tee Interviews Shahar Steiff of Road to Recovery February 14, 2023
We took an enticing turn in our discussions of Peace, and we spoke about stories of love. Love from a Jewish Israeli businessman, that grew from his intellectual understanding of the tragic circumstances they face, to opening his heart to ill Palestinian kids. Today, he adds to his schedule, driving Palestinian children with serious illnesses, from the border to Israeli hospitals, for their intense medical treatments and back, as a volunteer with the Road to Recovery.
It’s so much more than being a driver. Shahar Steiff, has made these kids part of his family and part of his soul. At the Road to Recovery, Palestinians get the patients and their parents to their border and from their border, Israelis transport them to Israeli hospitals for treatment. The journey from the border crossing is virtually impossible for the hundreds of parents of sick children, due to both expense as well as logistical complexity. Parents are left completely helpless in the face of their child’s illness. The Palestinian Authority finances the hospital treatment, but getting to and from the hospital remains a huge and often insurmountable barrier.
Road to Recovery fills in this gap and along the way the humanitarian effort and the friendships that form move Peace forward. In addition to the 2000 volunteers transporting Palestinian patients to hospitals all over Israel, Road to Recovery assists those with limited means in the acquisition of specialized outpatient medical equipment. They also organize special rehabilitation and retreat days for Palestinian patients and their families in Israeli recreation destinations.
Shahar Steiff, is one of the Jewish Israeli volunteer drivers. He is 61 years old, born and raised in Israel, and his life reflects the troubled history of Israel, both of determined success, and tragedy. We’ll touch on both his volunteer work and his personal story. What’s it like growing up in a country where repeatedly throughout your life, you’ve had to wonder if tomorrow you or your family will be killed? When what may be inevitable, it hits close to home within your family, what makes you go on, even choose to help what others around you call your enemy?
Shahar is a very accomplished business owner in the world of technology. He was educated at the MIT Sloan School of Management, attended the Executive Program, of Blockchain Technologies: Business Innovation and Application in 2019, and attended the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Today, he works at a telecom company. He has traveled the world for business, but during COVID 3 years ago, it provided an unexpected opportunity—time. He put his bit of extra time into volunteering to help transport Palestinian children for their medical needs at Israeli hospitals.
Please join us. Hear how a man who was impacted by tragedy in his own Jewish Israeli family, but chose to work on Peace, with Palestinian kids who desperately need his help. His efforts exemplify the Jewish tradition of Tikkun Olam, God’s entreaty to “repair the world.”
If you’ve missed any PEACE with Penny episodes, you can always see the recordings on our PEACE with Penny YouTube channel or at our website at www.PennySTee.com under podcasts.
Thank you and May You Live in Peace, שלום and سلام.