In 2023, Guinness World Records issued a temporary pause on processing record applications from Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Interest in the pause has ignited recently, with regard to attempted records for most organ donors congregated in one place. Voluntary organ donation? That’s a titanic sacrifice. Still, the folks at Guinness won’t budge, a stance that two Denver kidney donors found quite unfortunate.
“This was absolutely the appropriate course of action amid the outbreak and escalation of violence in the region,” the Guinness team wrote in an email to the IJN, “but we continue to monitor the situation carefully, reviewing the policy on a monthly basis.”
In December, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law sent a letter to the US Federal Trade Commission, urging Guinness to stoop what the group called, “deceptive practices.”
The Brandeis Center wrote that due to the ban of Israeli or Palestinian submissions, Guinness could truly not call itself “Guinness World Records.”
The Center also urged the FTC to compensate consumers who may have been misled by Guinness’ reference to “world” records.
The letter said:
“GWR may publish whatever ‘records’ it wishes. But under US law, GWR may not mislead American consumers by hiding that its ‘world’ records actually consist of the greatest achievements only in the non-Israeli part of the world. Section 5 of the FTC Act protects American consumers from such deception.”
Kenneth Marcus, chair of the Brandeis Center, said:
“We have seen again and again that Israelis are capable of besting the competition and achieving international success. Any so-called ‘world record’ excluding such talented challengers must at a minimum carry an asterisk to disclose that it is not truly a record for the entire world.”
Denver resident Chaya Parkoff has no stake in the matter, as she is not a Middle East citizen.
She is, however, a kidney donor, and Guinness’ ban on recognizing donors from anywhere strikes a nerve.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Parkoff says, “and I’m not sure why they’re doing it.”
Six years ago, Parkoff happened to see a video made by the New York-based organization Renewal, which matches those in dire need of a kidney transplant with potential donors.
“I said to my husband, ‘I want to do that.’”
So, she did.
“To me, if I have two kidneys and somebody has none, and needs one — why wouldn’t I give a kidney?”
A match was made with a man from Israel, and Parkoff flew to New York for the transplant operation, which marked the next to last kidney transplant allowed before COVID hit.
Parkoff met the recipient, Gary Kuperschmid, for the first time in the hospital hallway. It has now been six years after the transplant, and they have been close ever since.
Having gone through the arduous process — in a procedure known to create a more difficult recovery time for the donor than for the recipient, Parkoff considers the gift of the kidney a true mitzvah.
“There are spiritual ramifications for it,” says Parkoff. “And then, there’s the opportunity to help someone else.
“You realize that you’re part of something bigger, that it’s not just you.
“There’s the story in the Talmud that the Jewish people are all connected. It says Jewish people are like one body. It’s in our spiritual DNA.”
Denver’s Adam Leventhal knows that feeling, too.
Back in 2012, Leventhal happened to see a something on a website that changed his life.
“There was an incredible story of a woman in Crown Heights in Brooklyn, a young mom who had donated her kidney to a grandmother in neighboring Williamsburg,” recalls Leventhal.
“They were part of a large chasidic family. I was so taken by that article and inspired by the whole concept of living organ donation. Until that point when I had thought of organ donation, I was more familiar with deceased organ donation, when you go to the DMV and they ask if you’d want to be a deceased organ donor.
“I honestly didn’t know that much about living organ donations. I was so amazed by the thought that while we’re alive, we can part with one of our organs and give somebody a renewal of life. So I spent the next several months researching this.
“Sometimes in life we get inspired by something, but if we don’t act right away, the inspiration quickly fades. I got busy researching this.”
One year later, Leventhal went to New York to donate one of his kidneys to a man who lives in Brooklyn.
“I’ve heard numbers that are large statistics on Jewish donation,” says Leventhal.
“Twenty percent of all altruistic (living donors who are not related to the recipient) kidney donations are from the Jewish community, and donors are specifically from the Orthodox Jewish community for the donors.
“We are 2 or 3% of the whole population, and it’s staggering to know that the Jewish community plays such a disproportionate role when it comes to living kidney donation.”
Leventhal and the recipient, Meshulem Davidowitz, held hands in the elevator on the way to the operating room at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York’s Upper East Side.
“I’m not typically in habit of holding hands with strangers, but he was absolutely not a stranger.”
The transplant was a success, and Leventhal is in close contact with the family of the recipient.
“His wife will text on erev Shabbat,” Leventhal says, “wishing each other a good Shabbat.
Leventhal continues:
“I was only in the hospital for two nights, that’s a very small price to pay to literally give somebody their life back.
“It’s given me such a more intense appreciation of the gift of being alive and the wonder of our bodies.”
To find a match for their kidneys, Leventhal and Parkoff utilized Renewal, a Brooklyn, NY, based company that coordinated 170 transplants in 2024.
“I think that the Jewish community has a very strong sense of community,” said Rabbi Josh Sturm, director of outreach at Renewal.
“There is a feeling that if someone is hurting,” Sturm says, “than it is almost as if I am hurting and I wanted to do what I can to alleviate the pain.”
Like Parkoff, Leventhal was not too aware of the Guinness ban on recognizing Israeli and Palestinian organ donors.
“It’s always unfortunate,” says Leventhal, “when political considerations are used as an excuse to distort something that doesn’t need to be.”
© IJN 2026