Their talk earlier this month drew local medical personnel as well as those simply concerned about the state of violence and terror in Israel, filling the auditorium.
Loxenburg and Raflowski detailed the drive behind Israel’s emergency medical care units.
There were no holds barred.
“You’ve got to have some screws loose” to do this work, said Raplowski, who started in MDA as a volunteer at the age of 15.
Now an intermediate emergency medical technician and the director of the emergency department in the operations division, Raplowski is in charge of MDA’s preparedness for chemical incidents.
Being the first on the scene, he said, takes its toll, but the role of MDA is indispensable.
The auxiliary unit was organized in 1930 in Tel Aviv as a volunteer emergency medical service, and has since developed into a leading provider of vital lifesaving services — regardless of a victim’s nationality — during times of peace and war. MDA also provides civilian emergency medical and first aid provisions, and temporary shelter.
During the last 24 months, the need for MDA’s services has more than doubled, the speakers said.
Organizers of the Sunday morning talk intended to shed some light on Israeli life, beyond the pictures on the news, and raise awareness about Israel’s Red Cross.
“Here in the U.S., when we have a trauma, paramedics are offered a period of psychological counseling,” said Lisa Cohen, an organizer of the forum. “But in Israel, you go from one trauma to another and there’s just no time for psychological counsel.
“This is what Israelis have to deal with. Americans have a hard time understanding that, so we decided to bring it home.”
The Bay Area Friends of ARMDI, a local chapter of the American Red Magen David for Israel organization, sponsored the event in part to stimulate a fund-raising campaign.
“We decided to bring [Israeli paramedics] so that the community would get a chance to hear what Israelis are doing to prepare, manage and deal with these terror attacks that they are facing,” said Chen Ben-Asher, lead event organizer and a member of the Bay Area Friends of ARMDI. “We did it also in part to unite the Bay Area community and to awaken as many people as possible to do as much as they can to support Israel.”
MDA, she said, receives 70 percent of its funding from donations. This assistance goes toward equipment and medical supplies for Israel’s emergency rescue workers.
“We have to organize and unite behind Israel,” she said, “because it’s not just Israel’s problem, it’s a Jewish problem.”
Because terrorism is also an international problem, she explained, MDA paramedics led a training seminar the previous day at the Santa Clara Fire Department for Bay Area firefighters and emergency rescuers.
In the coming months, officials from San Francisco’s Emergency Medical Services will be traveling to Israel to continue learning alongside MDA rescue workers how to better handle any terror attacks that might occur in the United States, Ben-Asher said.
“We are helping each other. Raising money [for the MDA] shows that we stand behind Israel, and that we are all in this together.”
Bay Area Friends of ARMDI will hold a fund-raiser from 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18 at Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Rd., Los Altos Hills. Contributions to the MDA can be sent to ARMDI, c/o Chen Ben-Asher, 1435 Aster Lane, Cupertino, CA. 95014. Information: (408) 252-2661.