Source: Philadelphia Daily News

Wire Service: AP

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/nation/16264787.htm

A New Jersey Reform rabbi and a Methodist pastor may celebrate different holidays this month, but they have something to rejoice together - one is giving a kidney to the other.

After almost a year of waiting to hear good news, Rabbi Andrew Bossov, of Mount Laurel, Burlington County, found out this week that doctors approved a surgery that will give him one of the Rev. Karen Onesti's kidneys.

Bossov's daughter, Elisabeth, said Onesti's gesture is one of pure human kindness. She said, "I believe what's happening between my dad and Karen is the most prominent example of a healthy interfaith relationship that I and others in the community have ever seen."

Bossov, the spiritual leader of Adath Emanu-El, has interstitial nephritis, kidney failure that has been progressing slowly. The disease appears to stem from a reaction to medication years ago.