Photos: Shalom Burkis/COLlive
On Tuesday evening at Pier 60 in Chelsea Piers, over 1,000 people gathered together in support of Israel’s premier fully volunteer emergency medical service (EMS) organization. Over 400 of them were young professionals under the age of 35.
The gathered crowd attended the third annual gala held by Friends of United Hatzalah of Israel (www.israelrescue.org) in support of the work done by the organization’s network of 6,200 emergency medical volunteers in Israel.
Throughout the night supporters made donations to the organization that totaled $6 million which will go to support the lifesaving efforts of the organization.
At the heart of the event, the organization featured Dr. Zevi Neuwirth, a Miami physician who volunteers with the organization during international crises and who conducted dozens of black-ops rescue missions inside Ukraine over the first two months of the Russia-Ukraine war as part of the organization’s relief efforts.
The event was chaired by supporter Alex Blavatnik, who flew in especially for the event in order to support the organization’s efforts in Israel and Ukraine. He was honored by the President and Founder of United Hatzalah, Eli Beer, as well as the organization’s Chairman, Mark Gerson. Also honored were Cathy and Allan Weiss and Chantal and Al Gindi, for their continued support of Israel and the emergency services organization.
The event marked the third time that such a gala has been hosted in New York by Friends of United Hatzalah, and the first time since Covid began. There were performances by Broadway stars which highlighted the entertainment for the evening and the main gala dinner was followed by an afterparty with music and a DJ.
“I cannot put into words how thankful I am of the continued support here by the people of the tri-state area and the New York community,” said President and Founder of United Hatzalah Eli Beer. “Many of the people who came out tonight just supported our rescue missions and Operation Orange Wings that took place in Ukraine and Moldova. Now, they are here showing their support once again and donating to help us continue our work in saving lives in Israel. I am simply in awe of how caring a community this truly is. Thank you.”
United Hatzalah is the largest independent, non-profit, fully volunteer Emergency Medical Service organization that provides the fastest emergency medical first response throughout Israel completely free of charge. United Hatzalah’s service is available to all people regardless of race, religion, or national origin. With the help of its unique GPS technology and our iconic ambucycles, the average response time is less than 3 minutes across the country and 90 seconds in large metropolitan areas.
