It is not often that an ambulance arrives at the Begged Yad Leyad used clothing center in Kiryat Mattersdorf in Jerusalem. Rebbetzin Sheindel Weinbachs front yard serves as a depot for used clothes, toys and almost everything else which she and a team of volunteers sort and send to a network of distribution centers throughout Israel. Throughout the day and night cars, cabs and trucks pull up and dump the items people are happy to part with. There is even the occasional Egged bus delivering items abandoned in the city buses and unclaimed.

But what is an ambulance doing there?

The answer lies in a phone call received by the Rebbetzin from a staff member of the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. The caller asked if some clothes could be supplied for ill, homeless people who come to the hospital and lack even elementary clothes to change into from their ragged, unhealthy ones. Begged Yad Leyad was happy to supply the clothes and an ambulance was sent to pick them up.

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