Yaakov Maarek was born on November 14th, 1942 in Tunis City, Tunisia to a family with 4 children, including him. When Yaakov was two days old, his family escaped Tunis and fled to Algeria’s border due to the Nazi invasion and the subsequent bombing of Tunis. After arriving in occupied Algeria, Yaakov’s family still lived Read more

United Hatzalah of Israel inaugurated today its air medical unit (medevac) comprised of three helicopters and 30 flight paramedics. The unit will provide immediate air medical assistance in the north, center, and south of Israel. The helicopters, which are operated by pilots who previously served in helicopter units of the Israeli air force, will be Read more

It was an otherwise peaceful Friday in Jerusalem, a young couple, Dovi and Batya Widawsky, who had gotten married only two days prior, were getting ready for Shabbat when the day was brutally interrupted as a terrorist rammed a car directly into a bus stop packed with families and children. Dovi and Batya were in Read more

Last night in the middle of the night, I was woken up by an emergency request to provide medical treatment for a young woman who the Israeli Search and Rescue team managed to pull out of the rubble from a collapsed building in Kahrmanmaras in Turkey. The search teams had located her alive and buried Read more

As winter continues to bring a surge of patients to already overcrowded emergency rooms around the world, and specifically in Israel, one foundation is helping to facilitate a viable long-term solution to the congestion and strain that is being placed on hospitals.  The Ted Arison Family Foundation has donated a significant sum towards furthering United Read more

On Friday night, I was eating a family Shabbat dinner when I got alerted by Yosef Deshet and Chanoch Re’em, two of my fellow United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs, about a mass shooting that was taking place in Neve Yaakov. I was the volunteer on-call in the neighborhood this Shabbat, so I quickly got ready. I Read more

United Hatzalah of Israel sent a delegation of 25 first responders and experts in search and rescue operations together with 10 tons of medical supplies and humanitarian aid to Turkey on a special charter flight this afternoon. The chartered flight was arranged by the emergency medical service (EMS) organization together with Sun D’or an El Read more

On Friday night a week ago, my wife and I were sitting down at the Shabbat table with our five children, surrounded by the warmth and comfort of our home. Suddenly, my communications device started beeping, alerting me to a terror attack happening just one street away. Even though I was not on Shabbat duty, Read more

On Monday morning, a man in his early 30s collapsed from an overdose in his home on Ayala Street in Jerusalem. Worried family members call medical services for help. Shimon Uzan, a United Hatzalah EMT volunteer, was just on his way to work in the Ministry of Defense when he got alerted about the emergency. Read more

It was a peaceful Friday night after the Shabbat meal when my son and I stepped out of the house in order to go learn Torah together in the local synagogue. A few moments after we left the house the calm was shattered by the sound of gunfire.  At first, we thought it was the Read more