warning: graphics descriptions

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graphic descriptions. caveat emptor

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graphic descriptions so caveat emptor

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According to the NY Post, Chevra Hatzalah of New York has very aggressively sued Hatzalah of South Florida for using part of its name. They are even demanding that this fellow running the organization be placed under house arrest.

That sounds weird considering there are Hatzalah organizations all over the world, including multiple such organizations across New York itself, and Chevra Hatzalah is not suing any of them but only the one in Florida.

The guy running the outfit in South Florida claims that his organization, which he has since renamed to JVAC, is being targeted because he allows women to volunteer and serve as equals, which Chevra Hatzalah has refused to do and has fought against when other organizations tried to go that route.

Chevra Hatzalah has not responded to that claim or to any questions about the suit.

Whatever the reason may be, this is not the good type of Jewish news one looks for in the newspapers. I dont get why the outfit in New York has to be bothered by what is going on down in Florida, whether it is the women volunteers situation or if it is anything else. They arent even impinging on the chevra hatzalah market - they are about 1200 miles apart. How is whatever is going on down in Florida going to cause confusion up in New York? 

Just get back to the business of saving lives. I dare say it is this type of aggressive askanus where the askans start to think they run the world that make the community think poorly of askanim. Unfortunately this type of fighting has not been uncommon between first responder organizations, though in this case they are not even near each other and not stepping on each others toes making it more unusual..

Eli is a genius at finding ways to raise money for his organization

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The emergency phone number, not the date of the Twin Towers being taken down by terrorists.

MKs Idit Silman (Yamina), Eitan Ginzberg (Kachol Lavan), Moshe Gafni (UTJ, and Ynon Azulai (Shas) have proposed a law (see, they sometimes can work together and cooperate for the greater good, even nowadays) that would unite all the hotline numbers of the various emergency services into one number. Like a 9-1-1 service - call one number and they dispatch the relevant emergency unit depending on the needs of the call.

According to Behadrei, MDA, Magen David Adom, was against this proposal. Ichud Hatzala blessed the initiative. Proponents of the law say this will improve the life saving response of the services as the information will be put out to responders quicker and more efficiently.

The law proposal passed its initial hurdle in the Ministerial Legislative Committee and will now be prepared for passage into law in the Knesset.

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The best part is the opening that accuses Ichud Hatzala of turning into Yichud Hatzala - ie accusing Hatzala volunteers of transgressing the prohibitions of yichud - men and women being alone together in secluded places. That is some really good word play, regardless of whether or not it is true.

Regarding the truth, I have no way of knowing - Hatzala is mostly a first responder organization, so for the most part this cannot be true, as each responder is coming separately to the scene and leaving separately and at the scene there are usually other people as well. I guess there could be some scenarios where it does happen (ie they do have some ambulances, and maybe in the offices, etc), in addition to the fact that not everyone in Hatzala is religious (or even Jewish) and some just won't know about or care about the laws of yichud. 

In the second half of the pashkevil, the broadside, they complain explain that this is a result of Hatzala having opened a course for females to become EMTs.

Hatzala has been accepting and training female EMTs in he organization for several years already, so these guys are late to the game. 

They then say female EMTs is a double aveira - 1 for being involved in sherut leumi (which most are not) and the second for being a secondary level of prohibited intimacy or sexual exposure. As mentioned, most are not herut leumi - most female EMTs, I think, are volunteers. Additionally, as far as I know, people can do sherut leumi in Hatzala but not as an EMT. The office work can be done as sherut leumi, so this accusation just seems wrong to me. Regarding the "secondary level of gilui arayis", I am not sure why. If they are dressed and careful, what are they doing wrong? Anyways they are saving lives which takes precedence. Maybe they mean just the communication between male and female EMTs. I guess you can decide if that is a form of gilui arayis.

They conclude announcing an upcoming campaign (watch this space for details) against Hatzala and against the "srugi rabbis" who support them. Well, according to the website, the official rabbinic board of Hatzala (though surely other rabbonim are involved in different capacities as well) are: Rav Ezriel Auerbach, Rav Sariel Rosenberg, Rav Aryeh Dvir and Rav Yehuda Silman. Far from a group of "srugi rabbis. These are super Haredi rabbis.

Avi Ravina, a Haredi journalist for Kol Hai News, reported on twitter last night that the rabbis on the rabbinic committee of Ichud Hatzala are threatening to resign from their positions. they claim, according to the report, that Ichud Hatzala has gotten less and less Haredi of an organization over time, and has turned into more of an Israeli organization. To rectify the situation it seems that they want Ichud Hatzala to separate the Haredi volunteers into a separate division, under the umbrella of a separate "non-profit", from the rest of the volunteers.

If this should happen, they would still serve together, side by side saving lives, just be called two separate things and be fundraised for under two different names? Or would they serve separately as separate life-saving organizations, maybe each taking control of different areas or maybe each competing for the same calls?

I am not sure how this would work but initially it sounds like a superficial demand, to just call it two separate organizations even though they will both continue to function in saving lives together. This seems to be about appearances - it seems less Haredi - and not actually about saving lives, or specific halachic issues that have become problematic.

Hopefully this will blow over and turn into nothing significant. Hatzala has grown into such a powerful life-saving organization, clearly doing something right - it would be a shame to tinker with that.

And I am pretty sure Hatzala is still thought of as mostly a Haredi organization in identity, if that is important to some people.

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