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Once their seemingly impossible dream has been fulfilled, the children ask themselves, “Why can’t the impossible occur elsewhere?”
By ALAN ROSENBAUM JANUARY 31, 2025 14:14
NINE-YEAR-OLD DEKEL wished to be a pilot and was flown in a private plane over Israel with his mother and sister.
(photo credit: Make-A-Wish Israel )
"The words ‘Making the impossible possible’ are inscribed on my desk. That’s what Make-A-Wish is all about,” says Denise Bar-Aharon, co-founder and CEO of Make-A-Wish Israel.
In a wide-ranging interview, the vivacious Bar-Aharon discusses how the Israeli branch of the worldwide Make-A-Wish Foundation came into being, how it operates, and how it truly creates new realities for the children whose wishes it fulfills.
Bar-Aharon and her husband, Avi, founded Make-A-Wish Israel 29 years ago in the wake of the death of her brother David Spero from esophageal cancer. Realizing that his illness was incurable, Spero, a student at Hebrew University, requested that his sister honor his memory by helping sick children. Bar-Aharon and her husband contacted the Make-A-Wish Foundation in the United States and became its official Israeli affiliate and the seventh affiliate in the world to join the US-based organization.
Before founding Make-A-Wish Israel, Denise and Avi had worked full time in the textile business, representing large US firms in Israel. The couple gradually wound down their business operations and, since then, have devoted their time and energy to the foundation. The third founder of Make-A-Wish Israel was Avi’s brother Dori, who was extremely involved in the organization. Tragically, 13 years ago, Dori too died from cancer. “We’ve lost both of our brothers. This disease [cancer] has affected us tremendously,” says Denise.
The credo of Make-A-Wish Israel centers around three words: “We really believe in hope, strength, and joy,” says Bar-Aharon. Since its inception, the organization has fulfilled some 6,000 wishes of critically ill children in Israel.
“It doesn’t matter if the child is Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or Baha’i because they’re fighting the true battle – the battle for their lives, not [for] land, and [they are] not soldiers,” she points out. “They are children with mothers who are all fighting for their children’s lives. And that’s the true battle. We don’t differentiate.”
Over the years, Bar-Aharon frequently expressed the belief that some of the children who had their wishes granted by Make-A-Wish lived longer and more fulfilling lives due to the thrill of the experience and the hope that the opportunity strengthened within them.
In an effort to confirm the physical and mental benefits that can accrue for seriously ill children by having their wishes fulfilled, in 2015 she turned to Dr. Tal Ben Shahar from the Maytiv Center for the Study and Application of Positive Psychology at Reichman University. Prof. Anat Shoshani, the academic director of the center, conducted a study – the first of its kind– which showed that fulfilling the wishes of critically ill children can improve their overall health, both mentally and physically. The study compared a Make-A-Wish intervention group to a waiting-list control group. The findings indicated that the children who received the wish-fulfillment intervention had higher levels of hope regarding their future, increased positive emotions, improved health-related quality of life, and a better psychological profile manifested by lower levels of depression, anxiety, and psychological symptoms.
According to the study, “By making a wish, having positive expectations that it will be granted, and feeling a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when the wish is fulfilled, the child may undergo a process that generates hope, positive emotions, and optimism to both patients and their families. The experience may reduce despair while cultivating the child’s coping resources. The sense of achievement in actualizing a wish may create a generalized sense of hope, which has been found to be extremely important for recovery and healing in life-threatening conditions.”
‘The magic of wish fulfillment’
Ben Shahar expresses the concept slightly less scientifically and says that when children have their wish granted, the “muscle of impossibility” is mobilized. Once their seemingly impossible dream has been fulfilled – whether meeting soccer great Lionel Messi, being a pirate for a day, or visiting Disney World – the children ask themselves, “Why can’t the impossible occur elsewhere?” when it comes to recovery from their serious medical condition.
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Prof. Shoshani adds, “We discovered that when children with life-threatening cancer were granted their greatest wish, something remarkable happened – and it wasn’t just a momentary spark of joy. These children showed dramatic improvements in their emotional and physical well-being that lasted long after their wish was fulfilled. They became significantly less depressed, less anxious, and even reported fewer physical symptoms.” Most importantly, they developed a renewed sense of hope.
“The magic of wish fulfillment,” continues Shoshani, “lies not just in the moment of joy it creates but in its ability to rewire how children – and all of us – think about what’s possible. When we see that dreams can come true, even in small ways, it gives us the strength to face whatever challenges lie ahead. In today’s reality, where so many Israeli families are dealing with uncertainty and hardship, this reminder of hope’s healing power feels more relevant than ever.”
Make-A-Wish Israel fulfills wishes for children between the ages of three and 18 who have critical, life-threatening medical conditions. Children suffering from multi-system physical trauma are also eligible as members of Make-A-Wish Israel.
Most of the children, Bar-Aharon explains, are referred to Make-A-Wish in Israel by hospital social workers. Staff members from the foundation then interview the child.
“We find out everything we can about the child,” she says. “We ask them, ‘What was the best day of your life? We want to make it better.’” Parents are present when the interview is conducted, and Bar-Aharon says they are frequently surprised when their children express a wish for something they didn’t know they wanted.
The children are presented with four categories of wishes: the ability to go anywhere, meet anyone, have something specific, or “be” something specific. “Then we say to them: ‘Out of those four types of requests, if you had to pick one, which would you choose?’ When you see the magic and the sparkle in a child’s eye, you know it’s the wish. You see it. It’s beautiful,” she says.
MAKE-A-WISH ISRAEL staff then begin working on fulfilling the child’s wish. As part of the global Make-A-Wish organization, the Israeli affiliate can turn to another branch of the organization if the wish needs to be fulfilled in another country. Here in Israel, Bar-Aharon has recruited local celebrities such as Noa Kirel, Lior Suchard, Eden Hasson, and Niv Sultan, who act as goodwill ambassadors for the organization.
Bar-Aharon says that the wishes children express vary. Some children want specific things, such as an iPhone or a gaming computer. Frequently, younger children want to “be” someone for a day, such as a princess, pilot, or chief executive. Others would like to meet someone famous and well known, such as the president of the United States or a popular singer.
Many children ask for a makeover of their room or other part of their home to turn it into a place of joy and happiness. Sixteen-year-old Yam wished for a bedroom makeover designed for a professional gamer. Six-year-old Ariel asked for a treehouse in her yard, with princess dresses inside.
One of the most inspiring wishes that Make-A-Wish granted was an exchange of letters between a teen and actor Al Pacino. The Hollywood star wrote a deeply meaningful letter to the child and sent a picture of himself in costume from his latest film.
“She touched him [Pacino] so much by asking him to write because it gave him a chance to reflect on the important things in life,” she says. How did the girl feel after her correspondence with Pacino? “Incredible,” says Bar-Aharon. “Larger than life, that this man actually wrote her.”
Sometimes, the wish of a child can come from experiences he or she has while in treatment. Eight-year-old Ella was diagnosed with cancer and found comfort during her treatment by listening to an English-language recording of the play Les Misérables. When Make-A-Wish Israel Foundation staff visited Ella and asked her about her deepest wish, she didn’t hesitate and said she dreamed of watching the musical in England and meeting its cast: “If I can see Les Misérables and meet the cast, then I can believe that I can get better.”
“Nothing is impossible in my mind,” says Bar-Aharon, who, together with her small team, works out of an office in Ra’anana. They enjoy their work and continuously find it to be enormously significant.
“Sometimes, when people do the same thing for many years, they become jaded,” she says. “Our work is really amazing. I don’t feel that I have a job. It’s become a life legacy for my husband and me. We feel so incredibly privileged to do this. It’s not work.”
To help Make-A-Wish Israel grant more transformational wishes, donate via this link: https://secured.israelgives.org/en/pay/The_Shared_Appeal, or email
Makeawish.org.il or call (09) 760-2848. Follow on Instagram: @makeawishisrael.
This article was written in cooperation with Make-A-Wish Israel.
English (US) ·