Hatzolah Volunteers Meet Up for Conference

By COLlive reporter

What better way to celebrate 50 years of Hatzolah saving lives, than by building relationships with Hatzolah brothers from cities throughout the world and strengthening existing relationships.

In an unprecedented show of achdus between Hatzolah in New York and Magen David Adom in Israel, over 150 Hatzolah volunteers from 40 divisions around the world joined this week in Israel for an intense week of training, practicing active-shooter drills, disaster training, mass casualty incidents and multi-modality terror attacks.

The visiting participants from locations around the world, including the United States, Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, among others, joined for 2 days of lectures and training with Magen David Adom volunteers from Israel.

The conference included disaster lectures, active-shooter scenarios, technical classes, and practical pre-hospital practice sessions, as well as a day of training with the IDF at remote army bases along the Gaza border, using live pyrotechnics to train for rapid response and life-saving care.

The conference was co-sponsored and coordinated by Eli Rowe from Hatzalah of Queens with the Executive Board of Hatzalah of the NY Tri-State area, together with Magen Dovid Adom/Hatzalah of Israel.

The Crown Heights delegation included Hatzolah members Shlomo Galatz, Ezriel Rapoport, Menachem Scheinberger, Schneur Weingarten, Levi Brod, Mendy Wilhelm, Yossi Malamud and Chanan Feldman, who were seen throughout the conference helping IDF soldiers to put on Tefillin.

Isaac Stern of Chevrah Hatzalah’s Executive Board shared his feelings about the incredible achdus at the event, saying, “it is something very special to see the achdus of Yiden from countries around the world and states across America, speaking different languages coming together for the sole purpose to help Jews anytime anywhere in the world.”

“While some might celebrate a golden anniversary with just a party, Chevra Hatzolah has chosen to utilize this unique opportunity to educate its world-wide life-saving force and train its members with the latest in advanced life-saving techniques,” he said.