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By: Shoshana Bernstein

Hundreds, perhaps thousands of Jews are buried each year in Eretz Yisroel. Though the process�is certainly arduous for family members accompanying the deceased, it is generally fairly�routine. Such was not the case for a family from the Tri state area when their vibrant, healthy�mother was suddenly niftar at 1 pm on Thursday, October 2nd 2014 � the day before Yom�Kippur.

Since their mother�s wish had been to be buried in Eretz Yisroel, the family knew they had no�time to waste. A commercial flight transport was not possible due to the time constraints so�they contacted a private executive air charter company; grateful they could afford what they�assumed would be the perfect solution.

They were stunned when they were told, �Your request is impossible. It takes five days to�obtain the necessary permits for a private jet to land in Israel.�

Frantic, they called four more private jet companies, to no avail. They could not believe their�sorrow would be compounded by the inability to bury their beloved mother in a timely fashion!�Then a friend suggested they try Isaac Leider from VitalOne air medical transport.

�I received a call at 2:26 pm on Thursday.� Isaac recalls. �A distraught man explained that his�mother had passed away a couple of hours ago at New York Presbyterian/ Columbia University�Medical Center. He was desperate to have the burial take place in Eretz Yisroel before Yom�Kippur.� Isaac Leider assured him that although it was tricky, he could make it happen.

Isaac, also known as Rabbi911TM, immediately contacted Rabbi Yaakov Bayer from New Square�s�Bais Yisroel Funeral Home asking him, and Mr. Brian Warner, Funeral Director, to drop�whatever they were doing and meet him at Columbia. The three men raced to the hospital with�Isaac working the phones on the way to arrange for the deceased to be transported to New�Square where the tahara would be carried out by the women of Monsey�s Chessed Shel Emes.

At the same time, Isaac was reaching out to his contacts to attain the permits needed for the�VitalOne jet to land in Eretz Yisroel. �Since founding VitalOne in 2008, I have developed�relationships with numerous officials. When the need arises, we�re able to access the people�we need to make things happen.� Within 90 minutes, the permits that should have taken 5�days were secured.

With his trademark composure, Isaac stayed in touch with the family, instructing them to pack�and get to Teterboro airport. He ordered a catered meal to go from the Purple Pear in Monsey�to ensure the family�s physical needs would be taken care of during the long flight.

At 7:50 pm the private Gulfstream jet departed from Teterboro airport with 12 passengers on�board headed for Shannon, Ireland for refueling and then to Tel Aviv. Isaac saw the jet off,�relieved that he had successfully accomplished the times sensitive transport.

When the phone rang at 3 am, Isaac awoke instantly. It was the captain of the aircraft calling�from Ireland to say that time had run out. �Israeli air space is shutting down. European air�traffic control is advising us to divert to Cyprus. How should I proceed?�

�That was the moment when this transport went from challenging to really off the charts,��Isaac says. �The problem was that Israeli civil airspace closes at 2 pm on Erev Yom Kippur and�does not reopen until after the fast.� A similar scenario was playing out with a Delta flight #468�which was ultimately grounded in JFK with 400 Jews on board, unable to reach Israel for Yom�Kippur.

Isaac started burning the phones calling his highest level contacts within the Civil Aviation�Authority, Israel Airports Authority, Ministry of Transport and even the Prime Minister’s Office.��With incredible siyata d�Shmaya I was able to get Ben Gurion airport to stay open for us and�the jet received clearance to take off.�

The challenges weren�t over. With the jet now scheduled to land in Israel at 3:20 pm, the entire�country would be shut down when they arrived. Transportation from the airport was going to�be a major problem. �All the trusted transportation providers were closed. It�s 4 am in New�York and I�m calling every car service number in Israel looking for a driver!�

Isaac finally found a driver from Jerusalem willing to undertake the trip. The aircraft landed at�Ben Gurion airport at 3:20 pm, the only airplane in sight on the tarmac which had closed 80�minutes prior. By 3:34 the family was accompanying the casket on its way to Har Hamenuchot�Cemetery. The burial took place at 4:40 and the family arrived at the King David Hotel in�Jerusalem at 5:20 pm, a mere forty minutes before Yom Kippur.

�The driver told me afterwards that he was low on gas and all the gas stations were closed.�Somehow he made it to the airport and back on an empty tank! There is no doubt in my mind�that the deceased had tremendous zechusim to merit this seemingly impossible sequence of�events that enabled her to be buried in Eretz Yisroel, before Yom Kippur in just 18 hours. It�remains a very powerful lesson how one�s deeds and mitzvos truly carry you to the next world.�

The family, who wishes to remain anonymous, remains forever grateful to Isaac Leider and�VitalOne.

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