Jeff Covitz, a paramedic rescue captain with the San Francisco Fire Department, recognized the direct impact of Oct. 7, 2023, on diaspora Jews when a friend began to hesitate over wearing her Star of David in public.
“Oh my God, are we really back to that?” Covitz recalled to J. “Are we really back to 1930s Germany? Are we back to the Middle Ages where you had to hide the fact that you’re Jewish? Are we really going down that path?”
As fellow Jews in the SFFD reached out after the Hamas massacre and global spike in antisemitism, Covitz said he wanted to find a way to help counteract the isolation and sense of being under siege that many were feeling in their personal lives.
This summer, Covitz co-founded the SFFD Ner Tamid Society and became its first president. The group for Jewish firefighters, paramedics, emergency medical technicians and other department personnel seeks to connect colleagues with one another and to the local Jewish community. “Ner tamid” is Hebrew for “eternal light,” referencing the gas flame or electric light that continuously burns or shines in a synagogue’s sanctuary as a symbol of God’s presence.
Since the group’s first meeting over the summer, members have celebrated Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah together. Ner Tamid is eager to expand its membership and outreach.
Mike Hamilton, a paramedic and emergency medical services lieutenant, was one of those colleagues looking to give and get support. Helping co-found Ner Tamid filled that need for Hamilton, who serves as its secretary.
“Like everybody after Oct. 7… I was running hot. I was full boil. And I was looking for a way to positively use that energy,” Hamilton, 44, told J. “I just started reaching out to other Jews that I know all over my life, but that also includes work…. I’m sure something that so many people can relate to, especially in the direct short term after Oct. 7, was that feeling of ‘Who can I trust right now?’”
On Dec. 13, Covitz visited San Francisco’s Congregation Sherith Israel to introduce Ner Tamid to the local community during Shabbat services.
“We strongly believe that your public safety agencies should reflect the community we serve,” Covitz told congregants.
The fire department has 1,780 firefighters, paramedics and emergency medical technicians, according to public information officer Lt. Mariano Elias. The department doesn’t track religious affiliation, but Covitz estimated that fewer than 1% of SFFD personnel are Jewish. “We’d like to change that,” he said at the synagogue. (According to a 2021 Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund survey, 7.5% of San Franciscans are Jewish.)
The group is building upon an institution that already exists on the East Coast. Only a few weeks after the Hamas massacre, Covitz contacted Paul Demel, a firefighter in the New York City Fire Department and communications officer of FDNY’s own Ner Tamid Society.
“We tried to do whatever we could to help them along, give them advice, give them any resources that they needed,” Demel told J. “I’m really proud of what they’ve done.”
Established in 1926, FDNY’s Ner Tamid Society offers career development, community outreach and charity initiatives.
Before Oct. 7, 2023, Demel estimated that his group had around 100 members. In the following months, he said, membership and active participation in FDNY Ner Tamid events practically doubled.
Covitz told J. that he sees FDNY’s Ner Tamid as the role model for SFFD’s chapter.
“I want this to live long past me,” said Covitz, 57, who works as an EMS supervisor. “I’m going to retire at some point. I would like this organization to continue on and thrive.”
So far, SFFD’s Ner Tamid has around 15 members. As the group becomes more established, leaders hope to both increase membership and encourage more Jewish recruitment to the fire department.
Membership in S.F.’s Ner Tamid is not exclusive to Jews. Its vice president isn’t Jewish, though his wife and children are. Others have traces of Jewish ancestry, and others still have no Jewish affiliation at all but joined to support their Jewish colleagues.
“That was the pleasant surprise I got when I started doing this — is how many very supportive non-Jewish people we’ve encountered within the department,” Covitz said.
Neither Covitz nor Hamilton said he has experienced any antisemitism within the fire department itself. Interacting with the general public, however, is a different story.
As a paramedic, Hamilton said he has treated patients with swastikas tattooed on their faces. In June, he witnessed a group spraying pro-Hamas graffiti on Department of Homeland Security patrol vehicles while treating a protester who lost consciousness during a demonstration.
Hamilton mentioned the risk of an extremist at a protest deciding to turn to violence.
“It’s the one or two who [might say]: ‘We need to take this up a notch,’” Hamilton said. “That’s what keeps me up at night.”
Covitz spoke to the anxiety and even dread that many Jews have been feeling.
“I’m acutely aware that my Jewish community is a target,” he said. “One of the motivations I have for this organization is: What can we do in these very weird times that we’re living in right now to at least make the Jewish community better prepared for a worst-case scenario that we all hope doesn’t happen” — particularly a lone shooter or attacker.
In addition to offering training for emergency first aid, CPR and defibrillator use to the public, the SFFD Ner Tamid Society can also provide training for disaster preparedness and fire safety.
At the same time, Ner Tamid wants to celebrate the good that comes with strengthening their bonds with fellow Jews.
“There’s just so many different ways that we can help the community and strengthen it,” Hamilton said, recalling a tender moment from the group’s Hanukkah party on Dec. 19. “Seeing all these people that are being brought together and spouses and partners meeting each other, it’s just this beautiful thing.… We’re really doing something that feels really, really good.”
SF’s Ner Tamid Society can be reached at [email protected] or via Instagram at @sf.fire.ner.tamid.society.