A Giant Leap for ZAKA. a Small Step for Israeli Diplomacy
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NEWSZAK A September 2016 A Giant Leap for ZAKA. A Small Step for Israeli Diplomacy. Dear Friends, Welcome to another edition of NewsZAKA, bringing you up to date with some of the latest activities in the organization. As we are about to enter the New Year 5777, we take this opportunity to review some of the highlights of ZAKA's activities during the past year. A year in which, once again, ZAKA shines a light in the darkness. 5776 began with the so-called "lone wolf intifada", and once again ZAKA volunteers were stretched to their fullest capacity. The stress of being on call and in action 24/7 took its toll not only on the volunteers but also their wives and families, and ZAKA offered much-needed psychological counseling. On the international front, ZAKA won the much-coveted advisory status at the United Nations, which has helped us as we share best practices with emergency forces around the world, as the terror threat grows ever wider. From Paris to Brussels, Istanbul to the Philippines, ZAKA offers assistance in many different ways, as you can read in these pages. ZAKA is completely dependent on the generosity of friends and supporters to ensure its vital and sacred work continues. This Rosh Hashanah, please donate generously so that we can purchase much-needed emergency supplies to ensure that we are ready for our next mission - whenever and wherever that will be. Thank you for your generosity. Secure donations can be made via our website www.zaka.org.uk. Wishing you and your family Shana Tova! Yehuda Meshi-Zahav ZAKA Chairman Main Office: 234 Jaffo St. P.O. Box 36060 Jerusalem 91360 ISRAEL | Tel. 972-2-5015120 | Fax. 972-2-5015121 Email: [email protected] USA: New York, NY 10004 ׀ Broadway, Suite 1070 11 [email protected] ׀ www.zaka.us ׀ Fax (212) 643-0614 ׀ Tel (212) 643-0600 France: 20 bis rue Louis Philippe 92200 Neuilly sur Seine | Tel. 01-74-900-600 | Fax. 01-73-049-207 Email: [email protected] United Kingdom : 233a Golders Green Road London NW11 9ES Registered Charity No. 1099639 | Tel: 020 8458 5391 Email: [email protected] Canada: 99 Burncrest Drive, Toronto, Ontario M5M 2Z6 Email: [email protected] HK, Macao & China c/o The Jewish Community Centre One Robinson Place 70 Robinson Road Mid Levels Hong Kong E-mail [email protected] NEWSZAK A 2 ZAKA AND THE "LONE WOLF" INTIFADA ZAKA volunteers were stretched to full capacity intense level of activity that takes its toll on the - and beyond - over the winter months of physical and emotional well-being of the ZAKA 2015/2016 known as the "lone wolf intifada" volunteers, many of whom live in the areas that or the "knifing intifada". Countless stoning, are most seriously affected and many of whom stabbing, knifing, car-ramming and shooting personally know the victims and injured. incidents took place throughout Israel and the In several cases, the terror attacks took place West Bank. very close to the ZAKA headquarters on Jaffa At times, there were just too many events to Road in Jerusalem. And in many cases, the keep up with. So many that often they went attacks take place in the same spots, week after unreported in the international media. But week. ZAKA volunteers were often among the whole families were devastated by the tragedy first to arrive on the scene, helping with life- that has befallen them. The ZAKA volunteers, saving emergency first aid, and always the last especially those in the Jerusalem and Gush to leave, ensuring that all human remains and Etzion region, ran from call to call, 24/7, and the spilled blood have been cleared from the area NEWSZAK A 3 in accordance with Jewish law. And all this, in "ZAKA is an organization with a sacred mission addition to the daily "routine" tasks of accidents and it is wrong to desecrate the ZAKA name on the roads, in the home and other incidents with bloodthirsty terrorists." of unnatural death that require the assistance of ZAKA Chairman and Founder Yehuda Meshi- the ZAKA volunteers. Zahav noted that "ZAKA is an organization Black bags for terrorists entrusted with honoring the dead. Man is made in the divine image - all men, and therefore ZAKA In mid-October 2015, ZAKA management carries out its mission in Israel and around the decided to wrap terrorist bodies in regular black world with dignity and sensitivity, irrespective bags and not the white ZAKA body bags that of religion, race or creed. But when it comes to the volunteers had been using to date. This as a murderous and brutal terrorists, we too must result of the numerous requests ZAKA received know how to make a separation between victim from citizens who said it is sacrilegious to wrap and murderer. From today, we have taken this terrorist remains in body bags that carry the decision not to desecrate or defile ZAKA body ZAKA logo. According to one of the citizens: bags." NEWSZAK A 4 A personal account of the area and saw a bus with ZAKA volunteers, on their hands and knees, clearing human remains a Jerusalem bus attack and blood from the bus and the sidewalk. These ZAKA International Director David Rose is more scenes are seared in my memory from the horror used to raising funds than donning a ZAKA of the first and second intifada. volunteer vest and putting his training to the I immediately joined them. We worked test. However, that is exactly what happened quietly, blocking out the noise and mayhem one day last October, when he was working of the helicopters, the sirens, the screams, the in the ZAKA offices in Jerusalem. This is his frustration and the anger that surrounded us. personal account of one terror attack: We wiped away the blood. We collected the "Many know me as the person who fundraises human remains. Our mission - to ensure a full for ZAKA around the world. But I too am a Jewish burial for the victim, to deal with the trained ZAKA EMT volunteer. terror aftermath in the most dignified manner Today , as terror hit the streets of Jerusalem in possible, to honor the dead and to respect the two separate, almost simultaneous attacks, I ran living. from my desk in the ZAKA headquarters to help These are the words and slogans I use in my in the streets. I exchanged my office clothes for presentations and appeals to ZAKA friends and ZAKA white overalls and a yellow vest. supporters around the world. Today, as I worked First, I arrived at the site of the car ramming with these dedicated ZAKA volunteers who are and stabbing attack in Malchei Yisrael Street in exposed to this level of trauma and tragedy on which one Israeli was killed and several others a daily (sometimes hourly) basis, I realized once wounded. But there were already many ZAKA again how very special these people are and volunteers working on the site and help was how honored I am to work with them. needed at the Armon Hanatziv site. I am still deeply affected by what I saw and did I hitched a ride there on a ZAKA ambulance. I felt today. I have returned to my desk. Together with a sense of horror and déjà vu as we approached my ZAKA colleagues, I await the next emergency call. Sadly, it will come. And ZAKA will be there." NEWSZAK A 5 Behind every ZAKA volunteer is a traumatized wife By ZAKA Founder and Chairman Yehuda Meshi-Zahav I am often asked how the ZAKA volunteers, the professional tools to support and encourage especially the young husbands and fathers her husband. To our shock and sorrow, we among them, cope with the daily trauma of their understood the depth and severity of the wives' sacred mission. How can they deal with the grisly trauma, with their constant exposure to the aftermath of terror attacks, car accidents and trauma of terror from the eye-witness accounts suicides, ensuring a proper burial in accordance that their husbands bring with them into the with Jewish law - and then go back to their home on an almost daily basis. normal lives? At the workshop, the volunteers’ wives talked And what about the effect this has on their wives about the difficult and depressive atmosphere and family? The unpredictability of every day, that seeps into the home after their husbands' never knowing when that ZAKA beeper will go return from dealing with a difficult incident. How off, and the certain knowledge that whatever the misery envelops everything, and no one is and wherever they are, their husbands will drop allowed to be happy or listen to music or other everything to answer the emergency call. joyful things. How they even have difficulty As someone who feels a heavy, almost paternal connecting with their children. responsibility for the welfare and mental health According to R. W., wife of one of the young of the ZAKA volunteers and their families, I feel volunteers: “My husband and I are 23. We have its weight on my shoulders to the point that it been married for around three years and have often keeps me awake at nights. two small children. My husband has been At ZAKA, we provide professional psychological volunteering as a ZAKA Rapid Rescue Motorcycle counseling for both the volunteers and their rider for around three years. We were a young wives. Sadly, over the years, experience has couple full of joie de vivre, with our whole lives taught us the need for swift and professional ahead of us.