22 August 15 • 2019
jn
Persistence Pays Off
Southfi
eld teen helps save an elderly Israeli man’
s life.
P
erhaps Jaden Jubas, 16, of
Southfield should skip studying
for his college entrance exams
and just apply to medical school.
On July 16, while attending a camp-
ing program in Israel sponsored by
NCSY Hatzalah Rescue, he and another
camper, with the guidance of the ambu-
lance team they were shadowing, saved
the life of an 80-year-old patient.
The man was initially unresponsive
to CPR by United Hatzalah ambucycle
responders after trying to revive and
stabilize him for nearly an hour.
On that fateful afternoon, the teens’
ambulance was dispatched to a call for
a semi-responsive patient. While the
ambulance was on its way, the call was
upgraded to a “
CPR in progress.
”
Upon arrival, Jaden’
s team walked
up a flight of narrow stairs to find that
two additional EMT teams from United
Hatzalah and Magen David Adom had
been working to try to revive the elder-
ly man on the bedroom floor of his tiny
apartment. The bedroom and apart-
ment overflowed with about 20 tearful
relatives resigned to the fact their loved
one had died.
But Jubas and fellow camper Ben-
jamin Mendelson, 17, of Memphis,
Tenn., were determined and pleaded
with their EMT supervisors to keep
trying. First, Benjamin performed
compressions and was able to revive
the man’
s pulse, but the patient once
again flatlined. Amid the tears of rela-
tives, Jubas insisted he would try again.
After 90 seconds of performing CPR,
the patient regained a steadier pulse
and breathed once again. Jubas said
everyone in the tiny apartment was
overjoyed and the boys received shouts
of “Kol HaKavod” praising them for
saving the man’
s life.
In addition to administering CPR,
Jaden and Benjamin also helped the
EMT team with running an intrave-
nous line, assisted with oxygen tanks
and helped transport the patient,
hooked to many wires and life-saving
machines, down the narrow flight of
stairs to the ambulance.
Jaden said he and Benjamin kept
their cool thanks to expert guidance
from their supervisors who guided
them through the grueling work of
manually applying compressions to
the patient’
s heart. Jubas said he hopes
to continue his training to become an
EMT by the time he reaches 18.
The high schoolers were awarded
medals celebrating their first “
saves”
as Emergency Medical Responders
(EMR). On the medal is a quote from
the Talmud: “He who saves a life it is as
if they saved a whole world.
”
The volunteer work was part of
Jubas’
summer program with a United
Hatzalah ambulance crew in Bat Yam,
a city on Israel’
s central coast. NCSY
Hatzalah Rescue is a month-long
program run in partnership with the
Orthodox Union’
s NCSY Summer and
United Hatzalah, a volunteer-based
emergency medical services organiza-
tion in Israel. The program includes
training teens as EMRs and volunteer-
ing with ambulance crews in Israel.
“
Our summer program is new
and to have Jaden be one of the first
to save a life” is just incredible, said
Cari Immerman, regional director for
Friends of United Hatzalah of Israel.
“
God used Jaden as messenger to
help save a man’
s life,
” said Jubas’
moth-
er, Yehudit. “I am incredibly proud of
Jaden’
s maturity and determination.
”
On other runs as an EMR in Israel,
he helped treat people with minor
lacerations or those “
not feeling well”
in the hot Israeli sun. Whenever the
ambulance arrived, Jubas noticed how
grateful people were to see him and the
EMT team he was shadowing.
“We treated a police officer with a
large cut on his leg and some others
who were not feeling well,
” Jubas said.
“Just seeing our ambulance show up
is enough sometimes to calm people
down and give them comfort.
”
Jubas, who is just beginning the col-
lege application process as a rising high
school junior at Farber Hebrew Day
School in Southfield, has always been
interested in the medical field. He said
this experience has given him encour-
agement and a confidence boost.
“I was grateful for the opportunity
to save the life of a person,
” said Jubas,
who returned home Aug. 2 and plans
to hang out with friends and gearing
up for school. “I was determined not
to give up even though the EMTs were
ready to call the man’
s death. I was
taught in my EMR training that the
success rate for fully reviving a patient
through CPR is only at 10 percent.
“Thanks to this program, I know
what I am capable of accomplishing.
I hope my actions will inspire others
to be brave and do good in the world.
One person can truly make a difference
in someone’
s life.
” ■
jews d
in
the
STACY GITTLEMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Jaden Jubas of Southfield, left, and
Benjamin Mendelson of Memphis
helped save a man’
s life.
COURTESY JADEN JUBAS
Detroit Jews for Justice
Hosts Inaugural Wolfgang
Awards
On Thursday, Sept. 19, from 6-9
p.m., Detroit Jews for Justice will
host its first ever fundraising
gala, the Myra Wolfgang Awards.
Named for a pioneering Jewish
labor organizer, the awards are
being established to honor those
who have shown principled tenacity
in pursuit of justice.
The event will feature a dinner
catered by Guerilla Food Detroit,
a silent auction featuring dozens
of local small businesses and
organizations, remarks by honorees
and more. This year’
s honorees are
Selma Goode and Sylvia Orduño.
Goode has organized students,
mothers, grocery workers and
fellow Democratic Socialists.
Orduño has deep roots as an anti-
poverty advocate and organizer for
water, housing and environmental
justice.
The awards event will also
celebrate the legacy of Myra
Wolfgang. The Jewish Historical
Society of Michigan (JHSM)
describes Wolfgang as one of
the nation’
s first woman union
organizers. A child of Eastern
European immigrants, Wolfgang
was training at art school during
the Great Depression when she had
to turn to labor organizing out of
necessity.
Wolfgang played critical roles in
the Woolworth’
s strike, in several
organizing drives throughout
Detroit’
s service industries
and eventually Michigan’
s first
minimum wage law.
Throughout her career in
the labor movement, Wolfgang
held positions such as secretary
of the Detroit Local 705 of the
Waiters and Waitresses Union and
international vice president of the
Hotel Employees and Restaurant
Employees Union.
Tickets are now available at
detroitjewsforjustice.org/wolfgang.