Yad Sarah - History

History

Yad Sarah started as a gemach (free-loan service) in the home of Rabbi Uri Lupolianski, who served as mayor of Jerusalem from 2003 to 2008. In the 1970s Lupolianski was a high school teacher with a young family. One of his children needed a vaporizer during the winter, and his wife borrowed one from a neighbor. Upon hearing that such short-term-use items were hard to obtain, Lupolianski decided to start his own gemach by buying a few vaporizers to lend to others. People who heard about his gemach began dropping off other items which are also used for a short time, such as crutches, walkers and wheelchairs. With seed money from his father, Yaakov Lupolianski, and guidance from Kalman Mann, retired director of Hadassah Medical Organization, Lupolianski incorporated his gemach into a nationwide non-profit in 1976. Lupolianski named the organization Yad Sarah (Hebrew for "Memorial to Sarah") in memory of his grandmother, Sarah, who had died in the Holocaust.Yad Sarah raises 92% of its operating budget from donations. The organization does not receive any government assistance.Yad Sarah has helped establish equipment-lending centers and repair workshops in Angola, Cameroon, El Salvador, Russia, South Africa, and Jordan.