16 | JUNE 24 • 2021 

OUR COMMUNITY

continued from page 15

spread around the world.
Today, Hatzalah is the largest 
volunteer ambulance service 
in the United States, with more 
than 80 ambulances and almost 
2,000 volunteer EMTs, as well as 
dozens of branches throughout 
the world.
Hatzalah MI executive board 
member Nachy Soloff grew up 
in Monsey, N.Y., and was accus-
tomed to the service. “It was sec-
ond nature. You had a medical 
emergency, you called Hatzalah. 
They would be there a minute 
later, and you were comfortable 
with the person coming,
” he 
said. “When I moved here about 
15 years ago, I saw the commu-
nity was missing that.
”
While Detroit has been home 
to an Orthodox community for 
over a century, it hadn’t been 
until recent years that it grew 
to some 2,000 families, finally 
having the resources and call 
volume to make a Hatzalah 
feasible. So, in 2016, Hatzalah 
executive board member Bentzi 
Oseroff began the process of 
bringing the volunteer emer-
gency service to Metro Detroit.
“I saw the need to provide a 
link between our Jewish com-
munity, where some people 
— because of cultural and lan-

guage barriers or because they 
are Holocaust survivors — are 
uncomfortable dealing with 
outsiders and local emergency 
service providers in Oak Park 
and Southfield,
” Oseroff said. 
Oseroff turned to community 
leader Gary Torgow to help 
bring Hatzalah MI to fruition. 
Because it was a new con-
cept, leaders of Oak Park and 

Southfield public safety, as well 
as local municipal leaders were 
not on board with the idea right 
away. Torgow helped to arrange 
a trip to take those leaders to 
Hatzalah Chicago, which had 
been operating in the city for 10 
years. After listening to the fire 
chief of Chicago and having all 
their questions answered, local 
city and public safety leaders 

were convinced it could be done 
in Oak Park and Southfield and 
plans moved forward.
Oak Park Public 
Safety Director 
Steven Cooper had 
the opportunity 
to go to Chicago 
and see Hatzalah 
in action. “I had 
questions I wanted 
answered,
” he said. 
“How was it going 
to flow? What level of training 
were the people going to receive? 
Would Hatzalah respond to all 
people in Oak Park? It was the 
chance to talk to people who had 
boots on the ground.
”
At the ribbon-cutting cere-
mony for the Oak Park head-
quarters of Hatzalah MI in 
summer 2017, Torgow told the 
crowd, “We have extraordinary 
leaders and public servants in 
our cities. Without them, we 
would not have been able to 
do this.
” Torgow 
also singled out 
Bentzi Oseroff for 
his “vision and 
dedication to the 
community.
”
Southfield Fire 
Chief Johnny 
Menifee told the 

Director 
Steve 
Cooper

Chief 
Johnny
Menifee

“IT WAS SECOND NATURE. YOU 
HAD A MEDICAL EMERGENCY, YOU 
CALLED HATZALAH. THEY WOULD 

BE THERE A MINUTE LATER.”

— NACHY SOLOFF

Rabbi Bentzy Schechter of Oak Park 
addresses the Hatzalah EMS workers 
at their offices in Oak Park. 
BELOW: Mordechai Katz of Southfield 
and Chaim Cohen of Oak Park go over 
their radio protocol.

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

