United Hatzalah raises $120,000 for Bar Kuperstein and his family

United Hatzalah of Israel honored Bar Kuperstein, a former Israeli hostage who endured two years in Hamas captivity, at its Miami Gala last night. Richard Rosenbaum presented Kuperstein with the Greenberg Traurig Courage Award, recognizing his extraordinary resilience and strength in the face of unimaginable adversity.

Kuperstein’s father, Tal, was a United Hatzalah volunteer and was injured while responding to a medical emergency involving a child. United Hatzalah volunteers, including Eli Beer, took shifts at the Kuperstein family falafel shop to help keep the family afloat. Bar was trained by United Hatzalah at 17 and became an unofficial volunteer, aiding EMTs before entering the IDF as a medic. He later used those skills to help save lives at the Nova Festival, where he was working as a security guard before he was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. In front of 1,200 people, Bar announced that he is going to become a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT. Last night, United Hatzalah raised $120,000 for Bar and his family, to help with their medical and living expenses.

President and Founder of United Hatzalah Eli Beer: “Bar has been part of the United Hatzalah family since he was 17, doing shifts alongside our team to help them. We surprised him with a personalized medic vest with his name and gave him his father’s call code, 5055, so he can continue his family’s legacy of saving lives. We are incredibly proud to officially welcome Bar Kuperstein to United Hatzalah, turning unimaginable trauma into an uplifting commitment to help save lives of all people in Israel.”

Bar Kuperstein: “I became friends with Eli Beer when I taught him how to make falafel helping in my family’s shop after my father was paralyzed. Growing up, I learned from my father and from United Hatzalah how to save lives. I used those skills in the IDF as a medic and later at the Nova Festival helping those under attack on October 7th. Now I am happy to be officially joining the ranks as a United Hatzalah volunteer.”

The event will support the expansion of United Hatzalah’s all-volunteer based emergency response network and its ongoing effort to achieve a nationwide goal of 90-second response-time through innovations such as ambucycles, ambucars and the recently introduced Ambuscooter.