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Eli Beer

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Eli Beer

Eli Beer (born September 13, 1973 in Israel) is the founder of United Hatzalah of Israel, and President of the U.S.-based organization Friends of United Hatzalah. United Hatzalah of Israel is an independent, non-profit, fully-volunteer emergency medical services organization that provides fast and free emergency medical first response throughout Israel.

Early life and education

On June 2, 1978, Beer witnessed the bombing of the #12 bus. He was struck by the chaos of the incident and the dearth of emergency rescue resources.[1] This traumatic experience inspired him to volunteer on an ambulance at the age of 15, while attending school and working in his family's book and real estate business.

At the age of 17 Beer realized that a more flexible system had to be established to improve emergency response times. He was familiar with the Hatzalah model established in the United States and began to organize a similar model by launching a volunteer unit in his Jerusalem neighborhood. This unit purchased their own communication gear, medical equipment and supplies and was funded by the community. The organization re-imagined emergency medical first response by training EMT volunteers to respond to local medical emergencies ahead of ambulances and arrive in less than three minutes in order to provide first aid medical treatment and keep patients alive until ambulances could arrive.

Hatzalah Israel and United Hatzalah of Israel

Beer began to work with Hatzalah Jerusalem in 1992. With him as fundraiser and operational coordinator the organization grew and changed its name to Hatzalah Israel reflecting its nationwide scope. Hatzalah Israel acted as an umbrella organization, incorporating many Hatzalah chapters that had been established throughout the country.

In 2002, following a terror attack in the Beit Yisroel[2] neighborhood of Jerusalem where first response was slowed by the narrow roadways and congestion created by the panic in the neighborhood, a volunteer from the organization came up with the idea of having first responders arrive with a full compliment of medical equipment on motorcycles[3] in order to cut through traffic and arrive at the scenes of medical emergencies even faster. This gave birth to the 'ambucycle' a term coined by the organization to fit the newly created ambulance-motorcycle. Inside each of these vehicles is a full compliment of medical equipment carried by a regular ambulance with the exception of a backboard, stair-chair, and bed.

Following the Second Lebanon War in 2006 Beer unified numerous smaller Hatzalah organizations from around the country and changed the name of the organization to United Hatzalah to represent the newly unified organization divided into branches and the partnership of Jewish, Muslim, Druze and Christian volunteers from all religious spectrums working together in order to save lives.

United Hatzalah established its reputation as an EMS organization by being at the forefront of medical innovation. It was the first EMS to introduce the Ambucycle, a motorcycle equipped with all the medical equipment of an ambulance aside from a stretcher, which allowed its volunteer first responders to reach the patient on average of 3 minutes across Israel, 8 to 15 minutes ahead of the first ambulance. In 2008, United Hatzalah launched Israel's first GPS-based dispatch system, which was able to locate and dispatch the five closest EMS responders within 3 seconds of the emergency.

In nearly 30 years since Eli began the organization, it has grown to include more than 6,000 volunteer medical first responders including EMTs, paramedics, and doctors, who responded to more than 540,000 medical emergencies[4] in 2020. All services are provided free of charge to all people regardless of race, nationality, or religion.

Beer's vision is to bring United Hatzalah's life-saving model to other communities across the world. In 2015, he expanded internationally with the establishment of branches in South America[5], and other countries[6], including "United Rescue[7]" in Jersey City, N.J. in the United States, where the response time was reduced to just two minutes and thirty-five seconds as a result.

During his voluntary career as an EMT, Beer has been a medical responder at the scenes of the Ben Yehuda Street bombings, the Versailles Wedding Hall disaster, the Second Lebanon War in the north, and Operation Cast Lead in the south as well as dozens of other major terror attacks and mass casualty incidents.

Recognition

Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Israel (2010)

Beer received the Social Entrepreneur Award from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in cooperation with the World Economic Forum of Davos in 2010. The award is given to those driving social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health, environment and enterprise development.[8]

Presidential Award for Volunteerism, Israel (2011)

Beer received the Presidential Award for Volunteerism from Shimon Peres, the President of the State of Israel in 2011. The award is given to individuals and groups whose volunteering effort is deemed to be outstanding in a given year by a committee. Twelve awardees are chosen each year.[citation needed]

Young Global Leader, Davos (2012)

Nominated by a committee chaired by H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan for his efforts to create a multicultural, apolitical medical rescue organization, Beer was chosen to become one of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders in 2012. Young Global Leaders come from 65 countries and are honored for their outstanding leadership, professional accomplishments and commitment to society.[9]

The Victor J. Goldberg IIE Prize for Peace in the Middle East (2013)

The Institute of International Education (IIE) awards the Victor J. Goldberg IIE Prize for Peace in the Middle East[10] annually to recognize outstanding work being conducted jointly by two individuals, one Arab and one Israeli, working together to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East. Beer received the prize together with Murad Alian, the Coordinator of United Hatzalah's East Jerusalem Team.

World Values Network, Champion of Human Life Award (2016)

Beer received the Champion of Human Life Award at the Fourth Annual Champions of Jewish Values International Awards Gala, sponsored by the World Values Network, a prestigious platform established by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, recognizing those who strive to positively affect society. [11]

Conference of European Rabbis, Internet Entrepreneur Prize (2017)

The CER Prize is awarded to digital and web-based ventures that have potential to change the world and improve lives. Beer was awarded the CER Internet Entrepreneur Prize in Helsinki, for developing United Hatzalah's LifeCompass app, which automatically dispatches the five closest EMT responders within three seconds of an emergency.[12]

COVID-19 Survivor

On March 18th, 2020, Beer tested positive for COVID-19 amidst the worldwide pandemic while he was on a fundraising trip in Miami and was taken to the intensive care unit at Miami University Hospital for treatment. He was in a medically induced coma for nearly thirty days. Among those who cared for him was Dr. Joel Sandberg[13] together with his wife Adele. He recovered from the disease and upon his exit from the hospital received a parade from local supporters in Florida and was then flown to Israel on the private jet of Dr. Miraim and Sheldon Adelson. In Israel, he was greeted[14] by his family and hundreds of United Hatzalah volunteers who gathered together for a special homecoming ceremony Hatzalah.[15]

After recuperating from his bout with Covid-19 in Israel and undergoing intense therapy, Eli redoubled his efforts to save lives in Israel and utilized the tools of the organization he built to help stop the spread of the disease in Israel. From transporting Covid-19 patients to Corona Hotels free of charge and providing medical care at the hotels over the High Holidays[16], to providing humanitarian[17] and financial[18] aid during the lockdowns, Eli and United Hatzalah stood at the forefront of the fight against the virus throughout the first two waves of the virus. As Israel began its world-leading[19] vaccination campaign against Corona-19[2], Eli instructed the organization[20] to do everything in its power to vaccinate as many people as they could as quickly as possible, so that no one would have to suffer the way he suffered. To that end, United Hatzalah volunteers joined medical personnel in staffing the vaccination centers[13] across the country, providing free ambulance transport to the elderly, disabled, and home bound people [7]enabling them to go and receive their vaccines, and joinin together with the Claims Conference to provide free medical assistance and ambulance transport to 20,000 homebound Holocaust survivors[21] to receive their vaccines as well, making sure that no one was left behind.

Additional achievements

Eli was invited to be a speaker in April 2013 on TEDMED, an annual conference about health and medicine. His talk[22] was later featured on the TED website. He also spoke at the TEDx Gateway conference in India in February 2020.

Personal life

Eli is married to Gitty, and they have five children: four girls and a boy.

References

  1. ^ Lidman, Melanie (24 March 2011). "'The smell is still in my nose from other terror attacks'". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  2. ^ a b mfa.gov.il https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/MFA-Archive/2002/Pages/Suicide%20bombing%20in%20the%20Beit%20Yisrael%20neighborhood%20i.aspx. Retrieved 2021-04-05. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ^ "Creating a National Motorcycle Flashmob of Lifesaving | Born To Ride Motorcycle Magazine – Motorcycle TV, Radio, Events, News and Motorcycle Blog". Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  4. ^ Looking Back, Moving Ahead: A Recap of United Hatzalah in 2020, retrieved 2021-04-05
  5. ^ "Israel EMS team awarded for lifesaving aid in Panama". ISRAEL21c. 2018-02-20. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  6. ^ Carni, Yaron. "Israel's 'Uber For First Responders' Goes Global". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  7. ^ a b "Home". United Rescue. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  8. ^ "Awardees". Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  9. ^ Editor, Y. W. (2012-03-13). "Queen Of Jordan Chooses Eli Beer Of United Hatzalah As 'Young Global Leader'". The Yeshiva World. Retrieved 2020-07-05. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  10. ^ Greer, Fay Cashman (25 June 2013). "United Hatzalah leaders receive prize for peace in the Mid East". The Jerusalem Post.
  11. ^ Fishman, Tzvi Allen. "Boteach Jewish Values Gala Draws Hundreds of Community Leaders". jewishlinknj.com. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  12. ^ "News About Winners | Eli Beer, winner of the 2017 CERprize competition shares with us". www.cerprize.org. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  13. ^ a b May 5, Matthew Kassel; 2020 (2020-05-05). "How Dr. Joel Sandberg helped save Eli Beer's life". Jewish Insider. Retrieved 2021-04-05. {{cite web}}: |last2= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ www.israelhayom.com https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/04/22/united-hatzalah-founder-lands-in-israel-after-recovering-from-covid-19/. Retrieved 2021-04-05. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. ^ Yassin, Nusseir (April 28, 2020). "The COVID-19 Miracle". YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ "United Hatzalah to care for patients at coronavirus hotels during Yom Kippur". Israel National News. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  17. ^ Rudee, Eliana (2020-03-30). "New dispatch center launched by Israel's 'largest humanitarian-aid group'". JNS.org. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  18. ^ "New Humanitarian Dispatch Center Distributing Financial Aid Ahead of Holidays To People Hit By Coronavirus". JNS.org. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  19. ^ Sokol, Sam. "Israel leads the world in COVID-19 vaccinations. Here's how the country has inoculated more than a third of its population". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  20. ^ "United Hatzalah ceases service of 288 volunteers who don't want vaccine". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  21. ^ Jeffay, Nathan. "EMT group pushes to get Holocaust survivors out of the house and vaccinated". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
  22. ^ Eli, Beer. "The Fastest Ambulance? An ambucycle". www.ted.com.
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