Meir Harel Hesder Yeshiva, with 24 locations throughout the city of Modi’in, combines intense Torah study with a commitment to military service and community. Part of that commitment includes a paramedic and volunteer program with Magen David Adom.
“We have made the slogan [for the MDA volunteer program] ‘Torah that Saves Lives’ our motto,” says Rabbi Colonel (Res.) Eliezer Shenvald, head of Meir Harel Hesder. “Our great satisfaction in observing the mitzvah of saving a life gives us even more strength for our Torah studies.”
Volunteers are the lifeblood of Magen David Adom, explains Dr. Eli Jaffe, deputy director for community health and a paramedic at MDA. “MDA relies on the services of tens of thousands of volunteers,” he says. “And through the yeshiva students’ participation in MDA, we’re creating an entirely different society in the State of Israel.”
Some 380 students from Meir Harel Hesder have been playing a significant role for the past two years during the Covid epidemic. They have been trained to give coronavirus tests and provide vaccines to the elderly. Some are EMTs volunteering on ambulances. Graduates of the program have gone on to work for MDA or within the health system.
Students in one of Israel’s pre-military academies have also stepped up to the plate. “Since the beginning of Covid, I rise in the morning with a sense of calling, a calling for the State of Israel, a calling to battle the virus,” says one academy student.
“It was important for me to volunteer because at our academy we abide by Trumpeldor’s saying, ‘You need a wheel, I’ll be the wheel,’” referring to Joseph Trumpeldor, an early Zionist and national hero.
“One people, one society, with mutual accountability and responsibility for each other,” adds Rabbi Shenvald.
