While sports players and other celebrities often visit children in hospitals, it’s rare that the two end up putting tefillin on together. It’s rarer still that the experience becomes the start of a long-term plan to spread awareness and raise money for other sick kids.

Avi Newhouse, 13, from the New York metropolitan area, is currently in the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital undergoing treatment for a rare form of lymphoma that has robbed him of the ability to ingest food and has pretty much put his life on hold.

Jon Moscot, 23, a California native, is a rookie pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. Together, the two are busy making plans to encourage athletes to wear gold this September to draw attention to pediatric cancer.

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They were brought together by two Chabad rabbis: Yisroel Mangel of Cincinnati and Eli Baitelman of the Pacific Palisades, Moscot’s hometown.

“It all began,” explains Mangel, “when I saw a post on social media from Avi’s mother, Leah Newhouse, asking if anyone knew of a professional athlete who would be able to visit her son, an avid Yankees fan who could use a bit of cheering up. I immediately thought of Jon, whom I had been introduced to by his rabbi, Rabbi Eli Baitelman.”

Moscot says his inspiration for visiting children in the hospital—something he has done before—and reaching out to others in need is a value he learned as a child attending Hebrew school, services and other celebrations at Chabad of Pacific Palisades, directed by Rabbi Zushe Cunin.

Moscot says at first, Avi was lying lethargically in bed, though he lit right up and started talking baseball.

“Chabad shaped my character to do mitzvahs,” he says. “The atmosphere of love and kindness is bound to have an effect on you, no matter who you are. So as soon as I heard there was a Jewish kid in the hospital—knowing that there aren’t many Jewish athletes out there—his plight was immediately relatable to me.”