Need a babysitter, a ride to Manhattan, or a kosher used barbecue grill? TeaneckShuls, a moderated listserv connecting people in the northern New Jersey area, can help you find what you need. Need a kidney? TeaneckShuls can help as well. Ruthie Levi, a moderator for the listserv, reports that “as a result of an e-mail posting on this list for someone seeking a kidney donation, Rabbi Ephraim Simon of Chabad Teaneck has … successfully donated his own kidney.”

“It’s not like I woke up one morning and wanted to donate a kidney,” said Simon, who serves as the Chabad rabbi in Teaneck. “My own children, ages 2 to 14, are my first priority.” He recounted how a woman named Chaya Lipshutz had been posting for years on TeaneckShuls about people who needed kidney donors. “I would read them, and sigh, and go on with my day. I have nine little children and it was not something I would envision doing.” However, one such posting touched him deeply. “In August 2008, [Lipshutz] had a post of a 12-year-old girl — how could I let a 12-year-old girl die? I have a daughter who is 12.”

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the historic Woodstock Music Festival, which attracted perhaps as many as a half-million, mostly young, concertgoers. The peaceful behavior of festival-goers gave, and still gives, Woodstock the aura of being the tangible affirmation of the “peace and love” ethos of the ’60s hippie “counterculture.” The “good vibes” were preserved for posterity by the best concert film of the ’60s.

As I recall from Hebrew school, the Torah likes the number 40 — 40 years in the desert and so on. So, I guess it is appropriate, on this anniversary, to explore Woodstock’s many Jewish connections.

Let’s put on a show

Legislators and lobbyists working to push through President Obama’s health-care reforms have sought out the faith community as a voice of moral urgency.

Indeed, the contentious debate over health-care reform facing the country appears to have united Jewish advocacy organizations. While individuals within the Jewish community may not universally accept Obama’s push for reform, the Jewish organizational world is mostly unified in support, said Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the umbrella group for the nation’s Jewish Community Relations Councils.

“Social justice is a Jewish imperative,” said Nancy Ratzan, president of the National Council for Jewish Women, during a telephone interview on Monday. “Access to basic health care for everyone, I think, is understood today as a fundamental social-justice issue. The Jewish community is very engaged and very inspired by this opportunity to change policy to ensure that kind of justice for everybody, so it’s not just those who can afford it.”

Lisa and Steven Yourman and their two teenage children have all the trappings of the typical suburban Jewish family. A ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) and family portraits are displayed prominently on the wall of their split level home, their cat roams around the books, electronics, and other possessions of a busy family life, and a basketball hoop and four cars occupy their driveway. But their Fair Lawn home also has signs of their remarkable challenge: the medical equipment and cartons of medical supplies necessary to care for Sarah and Jeffrey, both of whom have cystic fibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disease affecting about 30,000 people in the United States. It is more prevalent in Caucasians. The incidence among Ashkenazi Jews is similar to that for Tay-Sachs: About one in 29 Ashkenazi Jews is a carrier. Carriers have no symptoms, but when two carriers have a child there is a one in four chance that the child will have CF.

The recent film “Extraordinary Measures” tells the real-life tale of a family with two children who are suffering from a fatal genetic disorder. Their father takes drastic steps to encourage and support the work of a brilliant scientist, whose insight leads to a miracle drug that saves the lives of the children. The CF story may have a similar path to a happy ending — with the work of some extraordinary Israeli physicians and researchers leading to a new approach to cure CF.

The CFTR protein is the source of all problems in cystic fibrosis. CFTR stands for cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator. Its normal function is to move salts across cell membranes throughout the body — a process that is essential to the proper functioning of the lungs, kidneys, pancreas, and other organs, as well as the normal growth and development of the vas deferens, a structure that transports sperm in men.

To be considered for the clinical study on the new drug Ataluren, originally called PTC124, CF patients “must know their genetic mutation,” said Teaneck resident Dr. Jay Barth, executive director of clinical development at PTC Therapeutics, Inc., the South Plainfield-based company that is beginning Phase III trials for the new drug. Barth, a Teaneck resident, explained that “many patients already know their mutation. If not, they have to have genetic testing.” Patients who carry at least one copy of a nonsense mutation (see below) may qualify. Also, patients must be at least six years of age, and have lung functioning within a certain range.

Cystic fibrosis can be caused by many different forms of mutations in the CFTR gene. The CFTR gene makes a protein that normally handles the movement of salt across membranes and the secretion of fluids and mucous. Since fluid management and mucous play important roles in many critical organs, CF can affect the lungs, liver, pancreas, reproductive structures, and sweat glands.