A Story of Help, A Story of Hope
by Rabbi Ron Stern
Phil and Tamar Koosed had a crazy idea: he could use his knowledge of international supply chain management and she could use hers of international development to get vital medical supplies into Syria to aid the civilians and children caught in the crossfire of the current war. They raised some money –- mostly their own and from friends and family. Phil found medical suppliers in China and bought space aboard ships bound for Turkey. Then Tamar found a way to get the supplies into Turkey, trucked across the country, (astoundingly) across the border into Syria, and finally into the hands of doctors treating the wounded.
Phil and Tamar are young parents. Phil grew up at Stephen Wise Temple; has one child in our EC and another up and coming. They’ve got careers, they’re busy parents but the more they read about needless deaths, war crimes, and the continuing atrocities perpetrated by Assad against his own citizens, the more they felt driven to make a difference. Phil is not a movie star, not an entertainer, Tamar is not a politician who can leverage connections, they’re ordinary people and most importantly Jews who couldn’t accept the world as it is. They took it upon themselves to transport supplies across thousands of miles to reach into war-torn Syria and save thousands of lives.
Every Passover for their entire lives, Phil sat around the seder table with his parents and sisters in Los Angeles as Tamar sat with her parents and siblings in Brazil and they heard the story of oppression and liberation so many times it became their personal story. And, when they saw the images and heard the reports of the oppression in Syria the story of the Exodus told once but echoed often throughout Jewish history they were compelled to reach into the lives of people they’ve never met and will never know.
Through their actions they embody the Jewish value of caring for the stranger because we were not only strangers in Egypt but often throughout the world.
Tell Phil and Tamar’s story at your Passover seder this year.
Visit SavetheSyrianChildren.org to help Phil and Tamar get urgent medical supplies to children in Syria.