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May 21, 1999/6 Sivan 5759, Vol. 51, No.34
ARMDI helps Israeli people help people
VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor
Irving Horn, ARMDI chapter president, goes over the books with member Bo Lerer, left.
Photo by Vicki Cabot
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When Israeli medical personnel were first on the ground in Kosovo, a small cadre of committed Valley volunteers took special pride in knowing that their efforts in support of ARMDI, American Red Magen David for Israel, helped make such a humanitarian mission possible.
That feeling resounds each time Israel's skilled emergency and medical teams respond to terrorist attacks or other medical emergencies in Israel or around the world.
ARMDI raises funds for Magen David Adom (literally Red Star of David), or MDA, pronounced ma-dah. MDA, which predates the founding of the Jewish state, is Israel's version of the Red Cross (although it is not officially recognized by the larger, international organization because it uses a different symbol).
MDA provides emergency medical and ambulance services. Its personnel know all too well the human cost of war and catastrophe.
"Unfortunately, we know what it is," says local ARMDI supporter and former MDA volunteer Bo Lerer.
Lerer, who emigrated to the Valley via London from his native Israel 10 years ago, served as a MDA volunteer in Israel as a teen-ager. He went on to work as a medic during his three years of mandatory army service and continued as a volunteer ambulance driver after finishing his tour of duty.
He explains that, like many other Israelis, he got "the MDA bug."
Lerer, though, has MDA in his blood. His mother, Yona, was a volunteer "nurse" serving with the Israeli ambulance corps for 10 years. In 1940, she was stationed at the MDA Gush Gan station in Ramat Gan, the same one where her son later volunteered.
MDA was founded in 1930 with only one small truck converted into an ambulance and a handful of volunteers. It became the official medical service of the Haganah, Israeli underground, and MDA members aided fighters throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
In 1950, the Knesset, Israel's parliament, passed the Magen David Adom Law, which established it as Israel's official rescue organization, acting in accordance with the Geneva Convention.
Today, MDA provides ambulance and mobile intensive-care and blood-bank services throughout Israel, as well as operating more than 50 first-aid stations in the country. It also provides first-aid training.
MDA's fleet of more than 500 ambulances includes specially equipped units for cardiac emergencies and neonatal care. Lerer recalls watching a surgeon perform open-heart surgery on one ambulance, and watching the birth of countless babies when assigned to another. The Gush Gan station is close to Hebron, which has a large community of observant Jews, many of whom have large families.
MDA ambulances also are on the scene for traffic accidents, a major hazard in Israel today.
"In Israel, people know if there's an accident or a heart attack, you call MDA," says Lerer. And in times of war "the whole country depends on MDA."
Here in the Valley, such name recognition has been hard to come by.
Irving Horn, current president of the local ARMDI chapter, puzzles that more Valley Jews are not aware of the critical work MDA does.
"If I walk up to someone and say I'm from ARMDI, they say, 'What's ARMDI?' "
The affable Horn, along with his active wife, Frances, will surely tell them. But what he wants is more supporters for the very vital services MDA provides.
He explains that MDA receives no public moneys and relies heavily on private donations raised by its worldwide volunteer network. MDA fund-raising chapters are located in 16 countries around the world and throughout the United States.
Lerer also notes that MDA is not officially recognized by the United Nations and receives no funding from the U.N.
Horn, a retired auto sales and service manager from New York, took on the leadership of the local ARMDI chapter several years ago. An indefatigable volunteer, he and his wife founded the Beth El Super Seniors group. He also is president of his central Phoenix condominium owners association.
The Horns run the organization literally from their kitchen table. Irving Horn keeps the books and a card file of members, meticulously tracking contributions and membership. The local affiliate receives a goal for the year from the national organization, then tries to meet it with membership campaigns, raffles, pushkes (cans for collecting donations to charity), and tribute cards.
Annual membership is $18; a pack of tribute cards, handled by volunteer Sara Zimring, $6. A raffle this year netted $5,000. Horn says a listing in the Jewish News Community Directory last year led to $14,000 in contributions.
The group meets at Beth El Congregation twice monthly and has a small core of active, but aging, members.
"We're trying to make it grow," says Horn. "The older people are going to retirement homes or moving away or passing away. We need younger people to get involved."
When Lerer first attended an ARMDI meeting six months ago, Horn says, he saw the future.
"I looked at his face and saw a person who could project," says Horn.
Since then, Lerer, who works in pharmaceutical sales and is married with two young children, has addressed the group about his experiences with MDA and has taken a more active role. He is working with the regional ARMDI office in Los Angeles to develop strategies to inject new energy into the local branch.
"This cause is close to my heart," he explains, lamenting the difficulties of juggling professional, family and communal responsibilities.
Horn says that for him, his commitment really started with his first trip to Israel.
"You visit Israel, you taste it, you smell it," he says of his dedication to the Jewish state.
But he goes on to say that support for ARMDI involves far more than Zionist fervor.
"This is a humanitarian cause," he says, "and I feel every Jew should be involved."
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