Former Board Of Utopia Jewish Center Dedicates Ambulance To MDA
A milestone event was held at the Torah Center of Hillcrest where Israel's national emergency pre-hospital medical and blood services organization, Magen David Adom, received a new ambulance earmarked courtesy Associate Board of Directors of the former Utopia Torah Congregation/Utopia Jewish Center and their last handful of congregants. Rabbi Yonoson and Rebbetzin Rochelle Hirtz spent a thrilling decade at the spiritual helm of the sponsoring kehillah, departing as Rav Emeritus upon their sale to Ganeinu Academy. Now, the dynamic couple lead the Torah Center’s wonderful devoted membership.
In appropriate fashion, the Sunday morning, March 17 ceremony opened with renditions of the United States and Israeli national anthems chanted by cantor and local Hatzolah member Josh Blisko, Q-143, as the audience stood in silent solidarity with the allied nations.
Samuel Konig, Director of Strategic Philanthropy for American Friends of Magen David Adom (AFMDA), introduced his admired predecessor Gary Perl who was the longtime respected AFMDA Northeast Regional Director and a 2019 honoree at the organization's Miracle Makers Gala for his dedication to the people of Israel recognized by a lifesaving award and accompanying plaque stationed at their Beit Shemesh offices. Perl together with Dr. Block worked with the Utopia’s Associate Board of Directors to arrange the logistics for this ambulance dedication.
Saving lives is inherent in every Jewish person’s blood. In Eretz Yisrael, residents solely rely on Magen David Adom (MDA) for their daily life saving efforts affecting thousands annually. While mandated by the State of Israel, MDA is not a government entity. As the national rep to the International Red Cross, MDA is unable to obtain financial assistance for day-to-day operations from the Israeli government, and largely depends on contribution from abroad enabling stellar dispatching, top notch training, and state-of-the-art equipment. As the sole emergency provider, MDA responds to every urgency throughout the country’s many isolated towns, nationally accessible by dialing 101.
Konig then detailed MDA efforts including a mission to Israel of 21 representatives from the Northeast where MDA’s influence was paramount in discussions with generals, families of hostages, families of those evacuated from the North, all showcased by a meeting with the parents of Adi Vital a”h, a 32-year-old mother of a newborn and four-year-old who called her husband just as the terrorists were approaching her home for a refresher in using their gun that culminated in the successful elimination of the evil, saving their children. Their four-month-old was sustained by milk from MDA’s Sussman Family Foundation Human Milk Bank that examines, and processes breast milk procured and held in reserves for newborns or premature babies of mothers in service, injured, kidnapped, or murdered. Demand has been at a record high since October 7.
In the aftermath of Hamas’ terrorist actions on October 7, Israelis have become victims to a sharp rise in domestic terror, consistent rocket attacks from Gaza, and northern assaults from Hezbollah forces. In turn, MDA’s integrated fleet of Medicycles, half-tracks, a helicopter in the North and South, autos, all showcased by all its 1,400 ambulances staffed by MDAs EMT and paramedics who treated some 15,000 injuries amidst gunfire and rockets falling from above. Per a 1950 Knesset law, MDA remains the exclusive supplier of blood for the Israel Defense Force, in addition to a supply for the country’s hospitals all due to the endless effective blood drives the outfit operates.
Dr. Ellie Bennett is a life-long resident of Queens who serves as a full-time Attending Physician in the Emergency Room at New York Hospital Queens (NYHQ) where he has stayed since completing residencies in Internal Medicine (2005) and Emergency Medicine (2009) finished while serving as Director of the Emergency Medicine Training Center from 2008 through 2018. Known as the KGH Doc, Dr. Bennett tends to patients of all ages at the urgent care style Internal Medicine practice he shares with his father Dr. Leslie Bennett. Appointed in 2013 as an Honorary NYPD Police Surgeon, Dr. Bennett knows volunteerism well highlighted by his service as an active paramedic of Chevra Hatzalah Volunteer Ambulance Service since 1999, including being a 9/11 first-responder. When asked what separates a Hatzolah volunteer from his peers, the doctor explained that should he hear an explosion he would run towards it hoping to save a life. What would you do? “On October 7th, our lives were changed irrevocably. All of us were justifiably scared. In America, we felt helpless, but there were those among us that rather than running away from the danger, were desperately trying to get to Israel. Even on Simchas Torah, we were on our phones the whole time trying to activate the H.E.A.R.T. team, the Hatzolah Emergency Ambulance Response team, the brainchild of a few members about 25 years ago that if there will be a war and MDA members would have to join the army, then an infusion of manpower could be supplied via Hatzalah.” Queens and Great Neck Hatzolah Coordinator Michael Vatch headed the first deployment on October 15, Dr. Bennett followed in the second of five subsequent missions serving as additional ambulance personnel, provided vital material and supplies, and most significantly helped with words of chizuk, moral support. Not knowing what was in store, Dr. Bennett and a dozen fellow volunteers took off for Eretz Yisrael poised to be of service to their struggling brethren.
“We landed at 7:00 a.m. and hit the ground.” At MDA’s Yerushalayim headquarters, the contingent spent eight hours getting brought up to speed on the differences in protocols and medications between the Israeli medical system versus ours in American ambulances. “I've been involved in emergency medical services my entire professional career.” Dr. Bennet served as Medical Director of Emergency Medical Services at JFK Airport at the Port Authority of NY/NJ from 2010 through 2018 and is an On-Line Medical Control Physician for New York City as well as the Hudson Valley. “The professionalism, expertise, and precision of that day of training at the MDA headquarters was impressive. The fact that we were treated like long lost brothers made it the start of a wonderful experience.” While being dispersed throughout the South cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Sderot, Kiryat Gad, and Malachi, Dr. Bennett met reality. “I'll never forget how halfway down the highway down South; the driver told us to put on our helmets and bulletproof vests because there's still some terrorists running loose. Boy, that was a reality check real fast. We weren't playing games anymore; and as we pulled into my station, I heard the sirens for the very first time. We looked up out the windows and we saw the Iron Dome doing what it does, saving life. But we were stuck in the back of the bus because the driver had gone inside to fill out paperwork and we couldn't get the doors open. I calmly watched everybody else running towards the farm shelter and couldn't help thinking, ‘We're going to die well before we start our mission.’ Of course, the driver made it back and we got inside the bomb shelter. To everyone else this was routine. Within about a minute or two, everyone just walked out. They say wait five to ten minutes, 60 seconds everyone's out already and we were sent to set up our sleeping quarters. Now, I'm almost 50 years old and I've been married for 27 years. It's been quite a while since I shared the room with anyone other than my wife. But here I am setting up a military cot in a classroom with 10 other guys. We had two showers for over 50 people. Dorm life was fantastic as a teenager.” Suddenly, without a moment to voice his concerns, Dr. Bennett heard more sirens went off and found himself back in the bomb shelter only to be sent out on the ambulances to check out the landing sites of the rockets minutes later, a routine followed over for the next seven days with barely a few periods of boredom that were often punctuated by sirens, deja vu. “On one call, we showed up after a rocket and found a lady was bleeding from her neck. My partner, not knowing what to do, quickly just put his fingers on the neck and stopped the bleeding. We walked her calmly out to the back of the ambulance, transported to the hospital with my fingers on her neck. Just like that we walked straight to the operating room.”
“Quite surreal was hearing the sirens while driving through neighborhoods while not being near a bomb shelter.” Dr. Bennett explained that they had to get out of the car, lay down on the ground as the sirens wailed overhead. Quoting his partner, “If a bomb hits you while you're lying on that ground, the vest you are wearing is for protection.” The doctor noted, “We had cardiac arrests, arrhythmias that needed to be stabilized, car accidents, a few strokes, and even had almost delivered a baby.” They cruised through downtown Ashdod daily, splitting up the town into grids so that everybody was closer to areas where rockets often landed hoping to arrive with alacrity. Dr. Bennett encountered commanders who only a few weeks earlier were doctors, lawyers, computer engineers, and software developers. His team got the word out that the American Jews cared about, loved, and supported them. After completing duties with MDA, Dr. Bennett went to work up north for a few weeks in hospital emergency rooms doing his part to support our 3 million brothers and sisters.
Rabbi Hirtz led Utopia for over 15 years. The rav offered these words. “Why did the Mishkan need a cloud in the first place? And how did an incorporeal insubstantial cloud inhibit Moshe? How did the cloud manage to keep Moshe out? Clouds are very flimsy substances as we fly through them all the time. But in effect, unless we're in the air, in an airplane, they're beyond our ability to reach or to touch. The cloud represents our aspirations, goals, dreams, and visions beyond the immediate and the material. In life, we aim to be pragmatic realists capable of implementing real effects based on our desires. The Mishkan is not just the monotonous place of worship where you come in, pray, and offer up a Karbon. Clouds concealed the unattainable, what we must strive for enabling us to grow in holiness and kedushah. The consciousness of Hashem, the knowledge of Torah, and the pursuit of mitzvahs all existed but only when the real and the ideal are fused can the cloud be lifted. The Mishkan personified a physical edifice that housed the Shechinah, a tangible structure that was the home of the divine – an ambulance that is a very expensive piece of equipment with a lofty cloudy purpose to save lives and help others survive.” This MDA ambulance is the fusion of the earthly material for the purpose of a greater good, a quality that embodied the Utopia Jewish Center whose members always represent Torah Judaism and continue the ideal of greater with this noble legacy.
In face of Israel’s crises, the Hillcrest community successfully engaged relatives, acquaintances, and shul memberships to support Israel’s emergency medical services on numerous occasions. The ambulance dedication stands at the peak of communal charity. The world’s elite emergency transport vehicles stem from devoted assembly plants in Elkhart, IN where Chevrolet and Ford prototypes often reign. Desiring only the finest, MDA’s arsenal of buses originates in Elkhart providing roughly 600 to the northeast region over the past decade. Israel’s characteristic narrow passageways present an obstacle for conventional ambulances. Therefore, MDA has long taken advantage of the fully equipped basic bus much like the one prepared for Utopia intentionally designed to scoop up the patient and bring them to the hospital with immediacy. The Utopia bus will follow other automobiles transported to Israel and disembark from the Port of Baltimore that sends out a monthly liner to Israel’s carport near Haifa. Once incorporated, the Utopia bus will be assigned a new home most probably to an area where an ambulance was decommissioned after a decade of service. Within six months updates will be made available followed by emergency response stats of the bus.
By Shabsie Saphirstein
