ARUTZ SHEVA (excerpt) — MDA leverages its experience responding to terrorism, rockets, and other disasters to train American hatzalah teams, while Israeli hatzalah organizations form integral part of Magen David Adom’s roster of 27,000 EMTs and paramedics.
Greater coordination between Magen David Adom, Israel’s paramedic and Red Cross service, and hatzalah organizations, volunteer medical first-responder teams that primarily serve Jewish neighborhoods, has created what’s essentially a worldwide Jewish EMS network.
That relationship was perhaps best illustrated this past June when EMTs and paramedics from Hatzalah South Florida raced to the scene of a condo collapse in Surfside, Fla.
“The training we had in Israel with Magen David Adom and the Israel Defense Forces gave us a level of confidence to face a situation we’ve never seen before in reality,” said Andre Roitman, a volunteer EMT and an executive director of Hatzalah South Florida. “MDA’s support and their partnership have meant that any time we need it, we can call them and within minutes we have a response.” . . .
“As EMS organizations originally founded to serve Jewish neighborhoods, it’s only natural we would seek to have a collaborative relationship with Magen David Adom,” said Yehiel Kalish, chief executive officer of Chevra Hatzalah, the central coordinating group for hatzalah organizations in New York.
“Given Magen David Adom’s preeminent role in Israel and the level of expertise they have in certain areas, such as multi-casualty response, working with them has afforded us advanced training and the potential to benefit from their many innovative protocols,” he said. “And it’s provided hatzalah volunteers across the United States with the opportunity to forge a stronger connection with their fellow EMTs in Israel.”
But it’s not only in the States that Magen David Adom has forged strong bonds with hatzalah groups. In Israel, more than 20 hatzalah organizations, except for the United Hatzalah organization, are fully integrated into MDA — trained by them, equipped by them, dispatched by them, and in most cases treating and evacuating patients aboard Magen David Adom ambulances. . . .
Of Magen David Adom’s approximately 1,200 ambulances and 650 first-responder motorcycles, about 30% are assigned for use by affiliated hatzalah organizations serving Orthodox communities in Israel. In addition, about 7,000 of MDA’s 27,000 volunteer EMTs and paramedics are also affiliated with hatzalah organizations. . .
“Because we’re members of the community, I think we can be more sensitive to concerns about modesty, privacy, and adherence to halachah, which are important considerations here,” said Avraham Reichman, an EMT and chairman of Tzevet Hatzolah, a Jerusalem-based first-responder organization with more than 350 EMT volunteers.
“But, at the same time, we’re part of this much larger, better resourced EMS response network, enabling us to have better tools and equipment,” he added. “And, when there’s a medical emergency in the neighborhood or anywhere in the city, we operate as one big family, shifting personnel and resources wherever they’re needed to save the most lives.”
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