Project
Details
This is the feature film from the Healing Hearts 2026 gala, The Heart to Fight. It is the story of Healing Hearts itself, told through the people it helps.
It starts in 2005, when Healing Hearts was a young couple’s idea: Rabbi Yochanon and Esti Klein, helping one family at a time. Twenty years later it is thousands of medical cases a year across South Florida.
What that looks like
The film goes through what that actually means. Finding the right doctor. Getting an appointment that was six months out moved to this week. A patient care coordinator who goes with you to the appointment, because a new diagnosis is overwhelming and most people do not know what to ask. Furnished Chesed Homes near the big hospitals for families from out of town, and kosher rooms inside the hospitals where a family can get a real meal.
Nava
The middle of the film belongs to a girl named Nava. She was diagnosed on a Friday and started chemo that night. Rabbi Klein was the first person to come see the family, the next day, with challah and food. Her mother tells that part.
It leads into the toy store inside the new Healing Hearts Center, a room where a kid in treatment gets to pick something out and, for a few minutes, nobody is asking where it hurts.
The ask
It is also the appeal. The last few minutes walk through the new Healing Hearts Center, built and ready, and ask the room to help Healing Hearts keep saying yes to the next family that calls.
I made it alongside Rabbi Yaakov Garfinkel, with six other films for the same night. It runs just under 13 minutes.
Additional Info
This is one of seven films I made for the Healing Hearts 2026 gala. All seven, and how they came together, are in the Healing Hearts case study.
Healing Hearts is at hhflorida.com.
