David (Duki) Greenwald             
  Founder and Director             

Ambulances generally arrive seven minutes after receiving the dispatch. But the most critical moments in the treatment of any trauma victim are the first two to four minutes. Hatzolah Israel's volunteers and their faster motorcycle dispatching bridge that critical gap - and help save lives since they are the first ones on the scene. For nearly two decades, Hatzolah Israel's immediate response has saved thousands of victims of cardiac arrest, respiratory distress, vehicular accidents, terrorist attacks and countless other medical emergencies.

Our volunteers are men and women who live, work and study in virtually every neighborhood of Israel. They wear their beepers 24/7, every day of the year. Within seconds after a dispatch is sent, volunteers closest to the emergency race to the scene. The immediacy of their response is what saves lives! The average response time is approximately 72 seconds. When an emergency call comes in, our volunteers speedily respond by leaving behind their work and other responsibilities. The Hatzolah Israel volunteers are regular people who undergo special EMT training, and are ready to drop everything and run when a call comes in. Our volunteers come from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from secular to Haredi (ultra-orthodox). They live and work throughout the entire country.

All Hatzolah Israel volunteers are trained and certified by Magen David Adom(MDA) to provide life support, cardiac and pulmonary resuscitation and how to respond to a large variety of medical emergencies. Volunteers are trained in the use of the most up-to-date life-saving technology. Upon completion of their training, we provide our volunteers with the necessary equipment to respond to virtually any medical emergency. All of our volunteers attend refresher courses to maintain their high level of skill.

Hatzolah Israel is a non-profit 501c3 organization that does not bill for its' services. We are not funded by the government - we rely solely upon donations from private individuals and charitable trusts for our operating costs and purchasing equipment. One of our well known response tools is our vehicle known as an Ambucycle. An ambucycle is a specially outfitted motorcycle fully equipped with emergency medical equipment. Our ambucycles are equipped with flashing emergency lights and a siren, as well as a large equipment box behind the rider. Some of the equipment on an ambucycle includes: oxygen, adult bvm, child bvm, bandages, neck braces, defibrillators, birthing kits and more.