Health: The Shabbos RV

How two parents put the Day of Rest on wheels

By Michael Orbach

Issue of August 7, 2009 / 17 Av 5769

Josh and Rachel Itzkowitz want to give parents of hospitalized children a restful Shabbos experience.

Nessa, the youngest of their eight children, was born with a severe congenital

heart defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. Years ago, children born with the condition would live just a few days. Thanks to medical advances, and after two surgeries so far (a third is planned for September), Nessa is thriving, Baruch Hashem. But the Itzkowitz's have spent their fair share of time in Columbia Presbyterian Children's Hospital.

"No one should know what it means to live in a hospital," said Josh, who calculated that he spent at least three months in the hospital over the last two years.

While the care in Columbia Presbyterian and the services offered by volunteers of the Satmar Bikur Cholim were "excellent," he repeatedly stressed, Itzkowitz found that while in the hospital something important was lacking: Shabbos. Last April, when the couple decided they wanted to give something back to fellow parents of sick children, they knew just what to do.

"We said, 'How could we give them back the dignity that they don't have walking around their hallways,'" Josh recalled. "We could give them a place of

respite." From there came the idea for ReVach, which means respite in Hebrew. The goal of ReVach was to provide a full Shabbos experience for parents and families in hospitals. The Itzkowitz's dipped into their children's college funds and bought and retrofitted a recreational vehicle (RV) that could be parked outside a hospital. The RV sleeps six and has its own dining room, kitchen and oven.

"You take for granted that when you have space that belong to you ... you live in a house that you can lock your door. In a hospital you don't have that. Even the couch that opens to a bed, you can't sleep for more than half an hour. I don't see us leaving the baby alone, but why couldn't I say sleep for three or fours, or have a Friday night Seuda (festive meal) for half an hour. "

"We can light candles and enjoy Shabbos. You can't do that in a hospital."

The Itzkowitz's consulted numerous rabbis about halachic questions about the RV's operation on Shabbos, including how to pump water and how to lock and unlock the door to the RV if there is no eruv outside the hospital (the answer was with a combination lock), and there were numerous technical details to work out.

"How much does a cup of coffee cost?" Josh asked rhetorically. "Apparently, thousands of dollars."

Josh and Rachel Itzkowitz are also active members of Hatzalah of Union County, covering Elizabeth and Hillside, N.J. and surrounding areas — he is a first responder; she is a dispatcher nearly every day.

They have paid back the money they borrowed from their kid's college funds but hope to fundraise to purchase more vehicles and expand the organization's services to more rural hospitals.

The ReVach Project can be contacted at 908-436-9310 and Josh is willing to drive the RV more or less anywhere, so long as he can make it back to his home in Hillside in time for Shabbos.