40 | NOVEMBER 7 • 2019 

MDA workers at 
the blood bank 
in Ramat Gan

COURTESY OF FRIENDS OF MDA

The new underground blood 
bank construction site

Banking on 
the Future

Magen David Adom continues work 
on underground blood bank.

JACKIE HEADAPOHL ASSOCIATE EDITOR
M

agen David Adom (MDA) 
is a non-governmental 
organization established by 
the Knesset in 1950 and responsible 
for providing emergency medical 
services and educating and training 
the public for life-saving activities in 
Israel. It acts as the civilian arm of the 
IDF in times of war. It also is respon-
sible for the country’
s blood-banking.
Israel falls short of World Health 
Organization (WHO) standards for 
its blood supplies. It has on hand a 
supply sufficient for only 3 percent 
of its population, or a stock of some 
260,000 units instead of the 350,000 
or 400,000 it should have, by WHO 
standards. 
Currently, that blood is being 
processed and stored at a facility in 
Ramat Gan’
s Sheba Medical Center 
that is unprotected from missiles, 
biological and chemical attacks and 
earthquakes. Built in the 1980s, the 
complex was designed to serve a pop-
ulation of 5 million. Today, Israel’
s 
population is 9 million and growing.
A new MDA blood banking facil-
ity is under construction in the city 
of Ramle. It will be the world’
s first 
underground protected blood bank, 
equipped with the latest technol-
ogy and able to hold more blood. 
The $130 million project is being 
funded mostly by American Friends 

of Magen David Adom, which has 
already raised $100 million. 
Moshe Noyovich, a senior Israel 
representative of the American 
Friends of Magen David Adom who 
also oversees the project, was recently 
in Michigan to help raise the remain-
ing $30 million. “It will be a state-of-
the-art complex,” he said. “No blood 
center in the world will be as shielded 
as ours.” He expects the project to be 
completed in early 2021.
The nearly 6-acre facility in Ramle, 
20 miles southeast of Tel Aviv, will 
consist of six floors, an adjacent 
MDA logistics center, and parking 
spaces for bloodmobiles, ambulanc-
es and donors. The top three floors 
will hold rooms for blood donations, 
a training center and the facility’
s 
administrative center. The lower three 
floors will be underground, where 
blood will be stored and processed. 
Those floors will be protected by spe-
cial shielding to specifications from 
the Home Front Command and the 
National Security Agency and safe 
from missile attacks, biological and 
chemical attacks and earthquakes.
Noyovich said the facility will 
be able to produce 500,000 units 
of blood annually, which will meet 
WHO standards. It will be able to 
produce and process 2,200 blood 
units daily (up to 3,500 units in an 
emergency situation), compared to 

the current 1,100 units produced 
daily. The staff size will more than 
double from 184 to 374 employees.
There will be a special shielded 
storage space for a strategic supply 
of blood, the minimum necessary 
for emergencies, such as natural 
disasters, wars or other catastrophic 
events, Noyovich added.
The project is being done without 
any funding from the government, 
although MDA was able to get the 
land at no cost. “It took more than 
two years, but it happened,” Noyovich 
said. “The blood bank will be in the 
center of the country with proximity 
to three main highways, trains, a heli-
pad and two electricity supplies.” 
American Friends of Magen David 
Adom took it upon themselves to 
raise money for the project’
s con-
struction. 
Noyavich says the Detroit Jewish 
community has always been staunch 
supporters of MDA. “I know many 
people who are very devoted, very 
dedicated to the needs of Israel. It’
s 
one of the most dedicated communi-
ties there is.
“This is an amazing megaproject 
and it’
s not that far away from being 
completed. Two years will be here 
before you know it,” Noyovich said. 

Donate to Friends of MDA at afmda.org.

Eretz

