26 | NOVEMBER 2 • 2023 J
N

W

earing a bulletproof helmet and 
vest and appearing live via Zoom 
under the cover of darkness, 
Dov Maisel, co-founder and vice president of 
international operations for United Hatzalah, 
shared a first-person account of the war in 
Israel with supporters at Tam-O-Shanter 
Country Club in West Bloomfield. 
The Oct. 16 meeting was led by Adena 
Barenholtz, the Detroit regional develop-
ment officer for Friends of United Hatzalah 
of Israel. The nonprofit is the largest inde-
pendent, fully volunteer emergency medical 
service organization in Israel and is funded 
entirely through donations from around the 
world.

“United Hatzalah is keeping Israel alive,
” 
Barenholtz told the crowd. “Their model is 
to get there within between 90 seconds and 
three minutes. In life-or-death situations, it’s 
all about time.
”

Maisel described the horror from the front 
lines after the Hamas attack began in the 
early morning hours of Oct. 7. He says 1,500 
United Hatzalah volunteers raced to the 22 
towns, kibbutzim and cities under attack, 
arriving while Hamas militants were still pres-
ent. They transported victims out of the war-
zone in ambulances and helicopters, and once 
those were all used up, in their own personal 

vehicles.
“In the first 48 hours, more than 3,000 
people that were injured in this terrible attack 
were treated by our volunteers down here,
” 
Maisel said from a staging area near Sderot, 
Israel, where flashing emergency lights and 
vehicles could be seen in the distance. 
“In my 30-plus years of experience in EMS, 
nothing comes near these atrocities. People 
tortured, killed, raped — and in masses. What 
happened was ambulances from the official 
government services were not entering areas 
that were under fire, and the military was call-
ing out to us to come and assist with evacuat-
ing these patients. Nothing we ever trained for 
was on this scale.
”
Volunteers rescued civilians, women, 
children and soldiers, providing everything 
from tourniquets and bandages to CPR and 
advanced life support. Tragically, some died 
trying to save total strangers.
“We’re talking about rescuing hundreds and 
hundreds of people under fire while the IDF 
was in the crossfire with the terrorists. A few 
of our volunteers were shot while treating vic-
tims on the street,
” he said. 
“Luckily, some of them survived. 
Unfortunately, some of them did not. 
Unfortunately, we also have volunteers that 
were abducted and taken into Gaza.
”

SUPPLIES QUICKLY DEPLETED
United Hatzalah uses virtually every type of 
emergency vehicle, including ambulances, 
ambucars and ambuboats. But their most 
vital vehicle is the ambucycle — motorcycles 
decked out with lifesaving medical equipment. 
Ambucycles are small and fast, able to slip 
by traffic jams and navigate narrow streets. 
Thanks to these vehicles, volunteers arrive on 
the scene of an emergency within minutes, 
stabilizing patients until an ambulance 
arrives. The organization serves people 
of every nation, race and religion, not 
only Jews.
Maisel said nearly a year’s worth of 
emergency supplies were depleted in 
the first three days of the war alone. 
While initial fundraising goals after the 
attack were to raise $20 million, that 
number has now increased to $50 mil-
lion because the war could go on for 
months, and United Hatzalah needs to 
begin building back its reserves.
Joel Kahn, M.D., of West 
Bloomfield, a practicing cardiologist 
and clinical professor of medicine 
at Wayne State University School of 
Medicine, recently became a board member of 
the local United Hatzalah chapter. He co-host-
ed the meeting, made a financial contribution 
and urged others to do the same.
“This is a time to ask yourself what you can 
do that, within a few days, will probably have 
an impact on the horrific circumstances our 
brothers and sisters, and for some of us, our 
relatives, are going through,
” he said. 
Andi Nitzkin of Farmington Hills also 
attended. She witnessed United Hatzalah in 
action in Israel in 2014, when a young man 
got hit by a car and a volunteer on an ambu-
cycle arrived in less than two minutes to help. 
Before signing off and returning to his 
duties, Maisel told the crowd that the support 
of Jewish people across the globe is being felt 
in Israel, and it’s making a difference during 
this unpredictable and tragic time.
“Everybody, even though it’s tough, even 
though they’re waiting to see when they are 
going to enter Gaza on the ground, every-
body is in high spirits knowing that you there 
in America have our backs, that the Jewish 
communities in the diaspora everywhere have 
our backs,
” Maisel said. “It sounds cliché, but 
I gotta tell you, it’s what’s keeping us strong.
” 

To learn more or support United Hatzalah, visit: 

israelrescue.org.

OUR COMMUNITY

United Hatzalah gives a Zoom 
report from the front lines to 
supporters in West Bloomfield.

Heroism 
 Under Fire

ROBIN SCHWARTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The United Hatzalah 
 
meeting Oct. 16 at 
 
Tam-O-Shanter Country 
Club in West Bloomfield

Dov Maisel, co-founder and 
vice president of international 
operations for United Hatzalah

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