According to officials in ZAKA and Hatzolah, the new bill being pushed along in the Knesset Health & Welfare Committee by MK (National Union) Prof. Aryeh Eldad may prevent many chareidim from continuing as volunteers in the above-mentioned organizations or in Magen David Adom.
The bill already passed its preliminary reading and the committee was preparing it for its first Knesset reading. The bill defines the criteria for becoming a “chovesh” (medic – Israeli equivalent of an EMT) or a paramedic, citing the applicant must meet the following criteria;
*A citizen or resident of Israel;
*Has completed 12 years of education;
*Has basic knowledge of Hebrew and English.
ZAKA head Yehuda Meshi-Zahav attended the committee session along with Hatzolah director Ze’ev Kashash, both invited due to the obvious relevance of the new bill to their organizations.
Some of the obvious problems may include those who did not attend state public schools, but were educated in the Talmud Torah system and do not have a diploma attesting to 12 years of education. They also questioned what becomes of volunteers who speak Hebrew and Yiddish, and do not know English.
It was decided that a subcommittee comprised of four members of Knesset would address all the objections and deal with them.
The two organizations, ZAKA and Hatzolah have hired attorney Dror Shussheim to represent them and the interests of the chareidi medics and paramedics.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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20 Responses
BS”D
And in the meantime, sadly, there has been another bulldozer attack and undoubtedly the volunteers of ZAKA (confirmed in fact) and Hatzoloh are out there in full force.
if that bill passes hatzolah israel will have to close up
Why isn’t it enough that they have the medical know-how?
does going to a jewish school in america count?
what are the qualifications for resident in Israel is that a B visa? what about the American EMT’s and medic that volunteer when they are there for a year or two?
What’s the hiddush? This is consistent with the zionist goal of making Israel into a secular state free from Hareidim. If they let Hareidim run around doing things that require secular skills, they might wake up one day and discover that Medinat Israel is becoming a Jewish state. Today a Hovesh, tomorrow a Doctor (without having to come to America to go to medical school). If they accept that studying 12 years in yeshiva is “educated” (even if they don’t know Shakespeare very well), they might have to let Hareidim into all sorts of jobs.
C’mon guys. Don’t be fooled. This is a backdoor scheme to eliminate the Hareidim from mainstream rescue work that keeps giving them a good press and a good image.
The secularists in Israel want to mount a major attack on Hareidim and their institutions. In order to do that, they have to first demonize them, just as Goebbels did in the Nazi era, before Kristalnacht.
Everyone in Israel knows that the Hareidi organization ZAKA is tops in rescue, just as HATZOLO is in New York.
The left-wing atheists in Israel are more than happy to let people die from a lack of rescue manpower if they can achieve their objective of demonizing Hareidim.
does 12 years in an american yeshiva count? in elementry school for sure they get books and transportation from the govornment. (and many yeshivas take regents-hope thats correct spelling)
To #1- to take a medic course, you have to have a high school diploma and be an EMT. The course is about a year.
To #4- I disagree with you; the reason why they must know English is because I don’t know of any medical books that are translated into Hebrew, they are all in English in E.Y.
As far as 12 years schooling is concerned, who said they are excluding 12 years of yeshiva schooling from being able to train & work in their EMS system?
Health –
The article clearly stated “Some of the obvious problems may include those who did not attend state public schools, but were educated in the Talmud Torah system and do not have a diploma attesting to 12 years of education.”
So it does seem the zionist parliament is attempting to exclude Torah Jews from rescue work.
Can anyone fill-in this missing piece of info?–
Why are they introducing these new requirements now?
What’s wrong with the present requirements? What’s the official justification?
sorry neve aliza you are wrong, zaka does a lot more than it’s name stands for zikuya korbani ason (identfying korbanos of tradgedy) deep thinker is right again. how many arabs do you know who work for zaka or hatzalah?
TO NO. 13:
You’re right. I confused ZAKA with Hatzolo/Israel. That was a stinker!
To Joe- #12,
Don’t you think I read the article before I commented? That line that you quoted was written by the frum author – it is not part of the language of the bill.
*A citizen or resident of Israel;
*Has completed 12 years of education;
*Has basic knowledge of Hebrew and English
Sounds fair, 1. citzen or resident of israel (who wants any schmooblow who arrives for a week walking around & trying to save & rescue.)
2. Completed 12 years of education, sort of saying anyone over the age of 18 (6yrs old + 12 yrs of education), does not say anything about bagrut or a diploma!!!!
3. The three main languages of Israel are Hebrew, English and Arabic,, why not have a basic knowledge of 2 of the 3.
BS”D
For the record, MK Eldad is a right-wing secularist who is about to form a new political party. He is also a physician. I suspect that he is using his status as a highly skilled physician to make the bill look like it was introduced to enforce medical standards.
This shows that even though some of us may agree with the secular right wing when it comes to shleimus ha-aretz, at the end of the day they are just as secularist as the left.
Hapitaron hayachid – Mashiach ben David! And remember – Hashem Hu Malkeinu!
Less Chumras:
You’re going off the DEEPend.
We never characterize our wonderful, but mistaken, brothers in the Modern Orthodox movement in a derogatory way.
We just warn them that they’re going down the path that leads to Reform.
i doubt that would want to lose out on the dedicated chareidi volunteers!!!
nevealiza/ #14- are you being sarcastic? It’s quite a mean “mistake”
less chumras
This has been the site of many who belong to the agenda, called “the my way or highway POV”, a sorry state for klal yisroel.