Bartmi Group Promotional Pieces for Relief Organisations

Magen David Adom by Eli Boroda

Magen David Adom or MDA is Israel’s National Medical Emergency Service and National Ambulance Service, with over 400 emergency ambulances in operation, providing 24-hours-a -day, seven-days-a-week, year round service to all hospitals throughout Israel. If there is a fire, a car crash, a bomb explodes or a heart stops beating, MDA is there with the first response vehicle within 2 minutes! Being a full member of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society, MDA has to have the best technology out there. With helicopters, first response vehicles that ride over any terrain and high tech ambulances, MDA is the best ambulance service possible. Compare to the ambulance service here in Melbourne as you will hear from Jasmine on Hatzolah: you cannot beat MDA anywhere in the world on response time.

The saving rate over many places in the world is so much higher in Israel because MDA provides Emergency Lifesaving Training for all civilian employees, including postal workers, police, firefighters, cab drivers, tour guides and many more. MDA provides First Aid instruction to young people as well. When the ambulance gets to the scene, people are prepared and informed on how to help the injured person.
You can get help from MDA even if you are hearing-impaired with the new Telecommunication System using a text message service.
MDA also helps out in all world crises where they have been allowed to pitch in and provide assistance. They went to Haiti and helped in the aftermath of the Tsunami in Indonesia. MDA are also famous for their amazing blood donation service. They collect around 300,000 blood units per annum for all around the world.

But there is a down side.

MDA is not funded by the Israeli Government at all. This is really shocking but true.

The up side is that we Jews around the world get to fund it.

Throughout Australia, Canada, the United States, South Africa, England, Mexico, France and many other countries, people like us donate. It is that time of year. Fill out a donation form and give generously to Magen David Adom and tell them you heard it from a Bartmi.

Hatzolah by Jasmine Goodrich, Rafi Tell and Ariel Golvan

Jasmine: Hatzolah is an organisation that specially trains and equips a group of volunteers from the community to be first responders with the highest commitment to save Jewish lives in our community. They are a community emergency response team and they run purely on donations. Many carry the same badge of the Victorian Ambulance Service and they have the complete trust of the Ambulance authorities, workers and dispatchers.

The way it works is that a dispatcher is called by people who know and trust Hatzolah. The Hatzolah dispatcher calls a number of first responders who have regular jobs in the community except that they all carry radios that are switched on--all the time .Whoever is closest to the place where assistance is needed is chosen to be one of three responders to go with their equipment in their own car. There is an ambulance but for each situation it is decided what is needed for the job. The responders arrive on the scene of a medical emergency in an average of 3 minutes! This is compared with 16 minutes waiting for the ambulance.

What I noticed in the way the representative from Hatzolah explained it, everyone in the group is a Shabbat Observer. Still, they carry their radio on Shabbat in case a call comes in. They keep their cars close by the shule they are at so that they can hop in and be off.
This is why observant Jews feel comfortable calling Hatzolah on Shabbat. They know that the responders will do anything on Shabbat that needs to be done for them to save a life but the responders will not break Shabbat if it doesn’t need to be broken. Most ambulance people wouldn’t understand the Jewish way of life this way.

Rafi: I saw the reason for Hatzolah as a response to the fact that people in our community are either too proud or stubborn or scared to call 000. There were also bad statistics on who in the community knew CPR. These people had to call people who would convince them to get help even if they felt silly possibly wasting people’s time if it was nothing.I also noticed that the response team sends three people to each scene. Some are there to help the family through the shock of the medical emergency. Hatzolah also trains people in CPR and lifesaving skills and first aid.

Ariel: It is interesting that the Jewish People, for our small size, have our own medical emergency response team, Hatzolah and our own protection service, CSG. What does this imply about us as a people? I believe it means we don’t rely or wait for people to take care of us, especially if they don’t understand our fears and we feel the need for an extra inner layer of protection that no one else would offer. We shouldn’t be ashamed about wanting to protect Jewish Life. Hatzolah also is called out to save non -Jewish people and they do that on Shabbat and Holydays just the same.

Meir Panim by Ariel Golvan and Sonia Metz

Ariel: Meir Panim is one of Israel’s Kosher Meals on Wheels organisations. They have a basic goal of feeding the hungry. What was so striking to me was how many kids are hungry in Israel. The statistic is hard to believe. One in three Israeli kids goes to bed hungry! Meir Panim stepped in and offers breakfast before school, packed lunches, free restaurant and food vouchers for use at food stores. It is a very basic need.

At first, we didn’t understand how simply stopping one person from going hungry one day was really helping if they didn’t have a way to get themselves out of poverty. We realised that solving only one part of a large problem that was as basic as eating today is difficult enough and important enough on its own for us to consider this organization a powerful tool of relief, preventing large numbers of Israeli children from going hungry. It is a worthy cause towards which we should donate money.

Sonia: Similarly to Ariel, I found the work of Meir Panim amazing. But we are not the only ones. In appreciation for what the organisation does, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu wrote “I have had the privilege of witnessing Meir Panim's activities on behalf of the needy in Israel.”

Some of Meir Panim’s activities include distributing 5,000 hot meals to underprivileged children each day and 5,000 food cards to elderly Holocaust survivors prior to Rosh Hashanah & Passover. Of particular note is the fact that the organisation is committed to carrying out its mission in Israel (to prevent poverty and to build self-esteem and independence amongst the poor) regardless of their age, race, ethnicity, or religious observance. Meir Panim thus contributes to the reduction of poverty and distress, which we hope will one day be a thing of the past. We echo Mr Netanyahu’s wish: “It is my fervent hope that someday we will on longer need Meir Panim's services in Israel”.

Ilan by Libi Boroda and Jasmine Goodrich

Libi: Ilan is an organisation that works in Israel but gets its funding from the Jewish People donating from around the world. It has schools all around Israel but in Australia we give to one kindergarten in the Negev. There provide schools and training facilities but they receive no government funding. Yet the parents pay nothing for the schooling, special equipment, teacher training, therapy - facilities that are on the forefront of knowledge on how to work with and educate children with severe physical handicaps from infants to adults sheltered by Ilan. These kids could not get through life, let alone grow to be independent and productive adults, without very special skill and aid. The adults are able to live in their own specially outfitted flats that Ilan has designed to make independent living possible for these special people. Some of the people have gotten married. This is a great success story. I truly think we should all consider giving Tzedakah to Ilan in a big way this Rosh Hashanah.

Jasmine: I thought it was great the way they don’t live in institutions and they find jobs that they love to do and had friends, played sport and give back to Ilan by making gifts for them to sell to support Ilan. Each of the brooches that we got had such a powerful meaning because a child of Ilan made it and it was so sweet.


Anika helped us translate the motto enclosed with the little brooches:

“Each child has a dream. Your gift can increase the chance of the children of Ilan realising their dreams.”

Access by Anika Sweet

Access is a not for profit organization working with disabled Jewish children. They do so much but don’t give themselves enough credit. They have been around for approximately 30 years and in that time they have helped Jewish children with disabilities become integrated into schools they wanted to attend and be in a Jewish educational and social environment. They provided assistance to the Jewish day schools so that they could meet the needs of the youngsters in many cases.

They have run informal activities such as the drumming group that the Bartmi Group will visit, horse riding camps, musicals and more for these children with special needs.

As the children grow, there are opportunities to learn independent living skills by working in the Access shop. Not only does Access help the children and Jewish young people as they grow but they also help the families by giving parents advice and friendship. They help the families to understand, thereby giving them a way to connect.

The most important thing about Access is that they see the ability and not the disability and they develop great abilities in all these children.