Remember from page 48
"The event I am most proud of," Eden said, "was suc-
cessfully performing CPR on a 92-year-old man. I per-
formed the compressions."
Other calls saw her ambulance crew aid homeless
Israelis and venture into areas wracked by violence.
"These are calls where the individuals do not have
the means to pay for their treatment," Eden said.
"Nonetheless, MDA never refuses these patients. It treats
them just the same as any other call."
MDA ensures a rapid and skilled emergency medical
response to 500,000 Israelis each year. It is a government-
mandated agency but is not government funded. It relies
on service fees and donations to fund operations and
keep paramedics and other responders properly trained
and outfitted. Donors worldwide fund 30 percent of the
$100-million annual MDA operating budget. They also
fund capital expansions, renovations, equipment pur-
chases and, of course, new ambulances. Volunteers extend
invaluable support lifelines.
Eden takes the blood pressure and pulse of a 21-year-
old security guard who had been feeling faint.
is a 2011 graduate of Frankel Jewish Academy in West
Bloomfield. In high school, she was very active in
BBYO, the Jewish youth movement. At the University of
Michigan, she's majoring in cellular and molecular biol-
ogy. She serves on the executive board of the American
Movement for Israel on campus.
Her summer in Israel, which ranged from June 9 to
July 24, certainly was incredible. Following 60 hours of
training in Jerusalem, she qualified as a certified first
responder. In the field, she went on to help prevent two
suicides, help assist two women in labor, help intervene
in two strokes and help respond to two major traumas,
seven heart attacks, 11 car accidents and one missing-
person case.
DRYB ON ES. C OM
Dry Bones
Eva And John
Engaging and articulate, Eden recounted her amazing six-
week journey serving MDA at the 45th annual dinner of
the Dr. John J. Mames Chapter of the American Friends of
Magen David Adom-Michigan Region. The dinner, hon-
oring the legacy and memory of chapter founders Eva and
John Mames, drew 225 supporters to Congregation Beth
Ahm in West Bloomfield. It was held on Sept. 11, which
marked the 11th anniversary of 9-11, the worst terrorist
act ever on American soil.
Eva was a Hungary native and teenaged survivor of the
Holocaust; she died in 2011 at age 81. John was a dentist,
a Krakow native and a Russian labor camps survivor; he
died in 1989 at age 67. The devoted Zionists founded the
chapter in the wake of the Six-Day War in 1967 to support
and save lives in Israel. They were frequent Israel visitors.
Dinner speakers included longtime MDA support-
ers Dr. Margo Woll of West Bloomfield, Libby Newman
and Manny Charach, both of West Bloomfield, Mames
son-in-law Craig Rosenblum of Atlanta and Michigan
Region director Can Immerman, who is based in
Cleveland. American Friends CEO Arnold Gerson flew
in from New York.
The Mames Chapter has raised more than $22 million
over the years for such MDA basics as bulletproof vests,
paramedic scholarships and defibrillators. It has donated
240 ambulances. A basic life support ambulance today
costs $100,000 and a Mobile Intensive Care Unit is
$125,000.
The chapter has funded the Lillian L. and Allan I.
Waller First Aid Station and the Natalie and Manny
Charach Emergency Medical Station, both in Ashdod.
It also donates toward stem-cell research and scientific
research equipment at the MDA National Blood Services
Center in Ramat Gan. MDA supplies most of the blood
needed by Israeli hospitals and all of the blood required
by the Israel Defense Forces.
Lending Support
To donate to American Friends of Magen David
Adorn, the U.S. fundraising arm of MDA, call Cari
Immerman: 1-877-405-3913 or write her at 23215
Commerce Park Road, Suite 306, Beachwood, Ohio
44122. She's seeking sponsors and cosponsors
for an ambulance not only in memory of Eva and
John Mames, but also for ambulances in honor or
memory of others with significant Detroit ties.
Bonds That Echo
As a teenager, Eden helped stuff and sew teddy bears,
which were boxed and shipped inside an MDA ambulance
as part of the Michigan Region's custom-made teddy bears
and blankets program for hospitalized Israeli kids. Two
years ago on a school trip, she was an MDA ambulance
patient herself after being thrown from a Bedouin camel
(a rare occurrence for Israeli tourists, Eden wants every-
one to know!).
Serving MDA was her way, she said, of "giving back to
the people of Israel — my people, our people. Being there
for the patients when they were in their most vulnerable
states and keeping them comfortable was one of my most
rewarding experiences ever?'
Another highlight of her MDA service was a morning
shift in the ambulance donated in memory of her other
zaydie Lawrence Newman, Nancy Newman Adler's father.
This ambulance was stationed in Petach Tikva, near Tel
Aviv.
"When I went to their station, everyone was so friendly,"
Eden said. "They couldn't wait to tell me how, just hours
before I arrived, the paramedics in the ambulance were able
to successfully perform CPR on a 50-year-old man.
"When I met with the paramedic who would be on
my shift, he kept emphasizing how hard the ambulance
works, and how much the people of Petach Tikva have
benefited from its services?'
Eden believes this summer of combining her love for
Israel and medicine made a difference — whether it was
holding someone's hand and telling them it would be OK
or helping to physically clean and bandage wounds.
As an MDA volunteer, Eden Adler witnessed Israel up
close and without pretense. She returned to Michigan,
an American state with a big stake in Israel's emergency
services community, with an unswerving belief in MDA
and what it has stood for so profoundly since the
troubled days of 1940s Palestine.
As she so eloquently
put it at the MDA
dinner: "It
is our vital
responsibility
as Jews to make
sure that MDA has all
of the resources and
equipment it needs
to keep our people
... For Israel
alive — and
And Our Jewish
therefore, keep
our country,
Community
the Jewish
homeland,
U.S. - Israel relations and other issues
alive and
of importance to the Jewish community
thriving?'
are front and center as we approach the
Nov. 6 general election. Most members of
the Jewish community reside in the newly
drawn 14th, 11th and 9th congressional
districts. Please learn the candidates'
positions, register and vote.
standing
guard
Prepared by Allan Gale, Jewish
Community Relations Council of
Metropolitan Detroit
© Sept. 27, 2012, Jewish Renaissance Media
September 27 • 2012
49