Saving Lives on the High Holidays: Hundreds of MDA defibrillators will be installed in synagogues in the capital in a joint program with the Jerusalem Municipality
The Jerusalem Municipality and Magen David Adom, Israel’s National Emergency Medical and Blood Services Organization are embarking on a one-of-a-kind project in Israel as the High Holidays approach, in which hundreds of life-saving defibrillators will be installed in synagogues in the city.
As part of the initiative, the Jerusalem Municipality calls on the city's synagogue Gabay (care-taker) to apply on the municipal website or contact the community administrations.
The program is the result of a joint initiative of the mayor, Moshe Leon, and MDA Director General, Eli Bin, in which they set out to outfit all the synagogues in the city with defibrillators for the High Holidays, which are typically a time of mass gatherings.
It should be noted that the defibrillator is a device that can be operated independently, without previous medical training and is intended to save lives in the event of cardiac arrest until the emergency crews arrive.
The project was carried out thanks to the generous donation of the Iinternational Fellowship of Christians and Jews and Cross River Bank, which was recruited by Israeli Friends of Magen David Adom, and other donors donated by the Jerusalem Municipality and Israeli Friends of Magen David Adom. Over the next few weeks, the stands will be installed in synagogues across the city for the benefit of worshipers and the general public, with the goal of saving lives.
The municipality and MDA stated that this is the first cooperation program of its kind in the country and large in terms of the number of devices that will be installed in synagogues.
The Mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Leon: "Installing defibrillator devices in synagogues will make the synagogue a safer place. The devices will provide an immediate and life-saving response when needed not only to synagogue worshipers but also to residents of the area."
MDA Director General Eli Bin: "In recent years, Magen David Adom has been working tirelessly to make the defibrillator accessible to citizens in a public area in the State of Israel, which has been proven to increase the chances of those suffering from cardiac arrest outside the hospital to survive without damage. "The hundreds of devices that will be placed in the synagogues join the thousands of devices that we have placed in the public areas and help save lives every day. I want to thank the donors and our partners in the Jerusalem Municipality with whom we can save the lives of many faster and better."
