Professor Alan Dershowitz spoke at a private event last week in Golden Beach Florida that had more than 150 people attend in support of saving lives in Israel. The event, which was held in the home of Tania and Isaac Murciano was aimed at raising awareness of the EMS work and free services of United Hatzalah of Israel, a volunteer EMS organization that provides free services to all residents of Israel, both Arabs, and Jews alike. Among the attendees was Mayor of Golden Beach, Glenn Singer.
Dershowitz, who sits on the International Committee of the organization, spoke at length about how the EMS organization brings people together and puts the saving of human life before anything else. He mentioned how he doesn’t usually join boards or committees of non-profits but that he feels honored to be part of this organization due to its inclusive atmosphere and life-saving work. It is noteworthy to mention that more than 10 percent of the volunteers of the organization come from Israel’s religious minorities, and are Arab, Christian, Druze, and Bedouin. According to Dershowitz “These volunteers do so much good. They are incredible life savers. Their work grows out of the heart of people who just want to do good. There is probably no feeling in the world that is better than the feeling of saving a human life.”
Dershowitz told the crowd that an ambucycle was donated in his honor. “I am proud to have my name on a life-saving ambucycle and proud to know that it is saving lives,” Dershowitz said. “I can promise anyone here that nothing in the world makes you feel better than the moment you get that email about who your ambucycle has saved and what had happened.” During the evening Dershowitz encouraged others to donate to the organization and promised to have a private lunch with anyone who donated an ambucycle or sponsored 20 volunteers.
According to event organizer, Florida Senior Development Advisor, Danielle David-Galsky, the event was a stellar success. “I am still getting phone calls and emails from participants telling me how incredible the event was and what a great cause United Hatzalah is. This was the biggest and best event we have had in Florida up to this point and people are still talking about it. Hopefully, this will be an incredible step for the organization’s growth here in Florida.”
The organization is trying to raise awareness of its activities that include rapid response EMS services that have decreased response times to under three minutes across Israel, an elderly outreach program, hospital ER assistance programs and one of the first emergency psychological first aid response units in the world known as the Psychotrauma and Crisis response Unit.
“Our goal is to generate awareness of the importance of United Hatzalah and to gather support for our 3,200 community-based volunteer medics who represent the diversity of Israel’s people and treat everyone regardless of religion, race or any other factor,” said David. While United Hatzalah is relatively unknown to the Florida Jewish community, our goal is to change that via events such as these. We’ve noticed that as soon as people hear about this pre-ambulatory lifesaving model, they are simply amazed.”
President and Founder of United Hatzalah Eli Beer also spoke at the event. “We are the fastest EMS response organization in the world and our model is now being copied by other cities all over the globe. Moreover, people have begun to realize that United Hatzalah is the only organization in Israel that provides emergency medical services for free. The work is being done by unpaid volunteers who respond to emergency calls around the clock and in record time. Through the work of our volunteers and the people who support them, we are changing the whole paradigm of emergency medical response.”
