Magen David Adom, Israel’s national paramedic organization, is demonstrating its cutting-edge ambulance dispatch system to American EMTs at the Hatzalah Expo, a gathering of Jewish volunteer EMS organizations, on October 30 and 31 at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Hatzalah South Florida currently uses a version of the software that has been tailored to their needs.
At the event, Uri Shacham, MDA’s chief of staff, also met with Rabbi Hershel Weber, who started the worldwide Hatzalah movement in the 1960s in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Today, there are independent Hatzalah organizations in the U.S., Israel, and around the world. Many Hatzalah volunteers have been trained by MDA and, in turn, volunteer their services to MDA in times of national emergencies in Israel.