Following the Hamas massacre, two American Jewish physicians volunteered with Magen David Adom and found purpose, solidarity and a renewed connection to the Jewish state.
“Oct. 7 changed everything for me,” said Dr. Adam Berkovits, an emergency room physician from Las Vegas who had not spoken a word of Hebrew for 30 years. “On Oct. 8, I became a ‘born-again’ Jew. While the attacks in Israel didn’t surprise me, the reaction on Oct. 8 by people in the United States marked a turning point for me and for everyone around me.”
More than 2,500 miles away in Smithtown, N.Y., Dr. Richard Feldstein was equally shaken as he watched the death toll from the Hamas massacre climb.
“I was speechless,” he recalled. “I couldn’t understand what was going on—how did this happen, right under everyone’s noses? Fifty dead, 100 dead, and before you knew it there were 1,200 dead Israeli souls. They killed the very people who wanted a peaceful existence and coexistence.”
