‘Absolutely Crazy’: Teens Train To Become Emergency Medical Responders
In the NCSY Hatzalah Rescue summer program, North American teens spend four weeks in Israel learning to be EMRs in a program run jointly by the NCSY youth group and the United Hatzalah emergency response organization
A week earlier, these teens were in a classroom training to become emergency medical responders. Now, they are putting their skills to the test in a mass casualty simulation.
In the Ben Shemen Forest just outside Modiin in central Israel, 50 teenagers from the United States and Canada gathered on July 19 to take part in the drill. The group was part of the NCSY Hatzalah Rescue summer program, a joint initiative between the Orthodox Jewish youth group NCSY (National Conference of Synagogue Youth) and United Hatzalah, an Israeli nonprofit volunteer emergency medical service organization.
Participants in the program, aged 15 to 18, spent four weeks in Israel, during which they completed a 60-hour training course to obtain EMR certification, traveled throughout Israel, participated in the simulation drill, and finished with an opportunity to put their skills into action by joining United Hatzalah for a week and a half of ambulance shifts with certified emergency medical technicians.
“They learn how to do triage, they learn how to pick up a patient, they learn how to be safe, how to keep safe. This is very important for us,” United Hatzalah founder and President Eli Beer told The Media Line.
Student practices triaging and assessing a head injury during the drill, July 19, 2023. (Courtesy United Hatzalah)
Hatzalah is the Hebrew word for “rescue.” Founded in 2006 after Beer identified a need for faster response times in emergency medical situations, the organization and its network of volunteers use alternative transportation methods, including specially equipped motorcycles and e-bikes, to arrive at a scene and provide a quick emergency medical service before an ambulance arrives. United Hatzalah boasts a three-minute average response time nationwide, with the average dropping to 90 seconds in larger cities such as Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem.
The program utilized makeup to create life-like injuries, such as burns, amputations, and gunshot wounds, on more than 30 volunteers. In the area of the forest where the drill was set up, there were triage stations, a mobile command center, speakers blaring sirens and other emergency sounds, a smoke machine, drones, and ambulances, all designed to create a realistic scenario.
Volunteer poses as a gunshot victim during the mass casualty simulation, July 19, 2023. (Courtesy United Hatzalah)
“This is really the culmination of their training. … Today is them coming together, putting their training in action, and really using the skills that they’ve learned over the course of the first week,” said Moshe Zharnest, the director of the summer program.
Zharnest told The Media Line that since the program’s inception in 2018, demand has increased and the number of participants had more than doubled. The first cohort consisted of 22 students, while for the past two years it has been 50, with more on a waitlist.
Split up into 10 teams of five, each accompanied by a certified United Hatzalah EMT, the teens practiced applying tourniquets, bandaging, triaging, transporting the injured on gurneys to ambulances, and more.
I thought this was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever done because I came in knowing pretty much nothing … and then seeing it in real life was absolutely crazy but it was so fun
“I thought this was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever done because I came in knowing pretty much nothing … and then seeing it in real life was absolutely crazy but it was so fun,” 16-year-old Rachel Buller, from New York, told The Media Line.
Beer told The Media Line that the program is part of United Hatzalah’s goal of teaching the Jewish value of tikkun olam, or “repairing the world.” He also hopes that the participants will be inspired to join the medical field after their experience with the program.
“You’re going to see a lot of doctors coming out of them, a lot of nurses, a lot of paramedics, firefighters, people who want to be involved in the community, people who want to do good deeds,” Beer said. He added that the participants are taught that “every human’s life matters. No matter who they are, no matter if they are Jewish, no matter if they are Christian or Muslim, we teach them all about the value of lives here in Israel.”
“Injured” volunteer is loaded into an ambulance, one of the final steps of the simulation, July 19, 2023. (Courtesy United Hatzalah)
Some students, such as 16-year-old Avi Abbett, told The Media Line that they now plan to pursue careers in medicine.
“I came on this program because I wanted to see and test out the medical field to see if I wanted to go into that, and just doing this even as a practice thing was just so cool for me that I think I really want to go into medicine now,” Abbett said.
You’re going to see a lot of doctors coming out of them, a lot of nurses, a lot of paramedics, firefighters, people who want to be involved in the community, people who want to do good deeds
In addition to inspiring the next generation of medical professionals, Zharnest told The Media Line that the NCSY Hatzalah Rescue program also aims to help students create a strong relationship with Israel.
“America is great, but Israel is our home. So it’s important that they know that and they see that and they go be ambassadors for the land when they go back, for [United] Hatzalah, so that ultimately they realize how important it is to come back here,” he said.
Hannah Levin is a student at Northwestern University and an intern in The Media Line’s Press and Policy Student Program. Patrick Doyle is a recent graduate of San Diego State University and an intern in The Media Line’s Press and Policy Student Program.
