From a single stretcher in pre-state Tel Aviv to Israel’s national lifeline and a global humanitarian force.
Ninety-five years ago, when Tel Aviv was just a sandy outpost, and the idea of a Jewish state was still a dream, seven volunteers gathered in a small room on Nachlat Binyamin Street. They had almost no equipment, just one stretcher, a few medical kits, and the daring to imagine a civilian emergency organization for a fragile, emerging community. That moment in 1930 marked the humble beginnings of Magen David Adom.
What those founders couldn’t have predicted was the scale of what they created: an organization that would become Israel’s national medical lifeline, its humanitarian presence abroad, and a cornerstone of civilian resilience.
Much of the early history is preserved thanks to MDA’s longtime historian Nathan Kodinsky, whose meticulous collection of documents and photos shows an organization improvising through difficult years. In these archives are documents of MDA volunteers helping refugees even before statehood, transporting Holocaust survivors from ports and trains, delivering essential supplies to displaced families in Europe, and supervising medical care for groups like the Children of Tehran, arriving sick and exhausted in 1943 after a dangerous escape from Iran.
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