25 Years of Safeguarding the Mexican Community
Elie Cabazo Sitt, Mexico
Cherishing What We Have
Alex Pollak, UK
Decades Later, A Dream Fulfilled
Loretta Fabianne Nigri, Brazil
Meaningful Changes
Lena Reker, Germany
Perspective of a young leader
Jonathan Fay, France
Twenty-five Years of Safeguarding the Mexican Community
Elie Cabazo Sitt
President Chevra Hatzalah Mexico
Among the challenges that Hatzalah faced during the pandemic, was the ability to remain strong, prepared, and up to date with the most sophisticated technology available to safeguard our entire beloved community in Mexico.
Two of our main accomplishments during this past year were the organization of Hatzalah Week, celebrating twenty-five years of our service, with a concert by singer Omer Adam, and an event featuring the inscription of the Hebrew letters in our first Sefer Torah. It was a project that took more than a year of planning and logistics, in which we faced many challenges that seemed impossible to overcome, but through constant hard work, we were able to achieve a historic event for the community in Mexico.
In addition to our special 25-year anniversary celebrations, there were many other notable highlights
and successes in 2022:
- Basic Life Support training for our units.
- Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support course for our units.
- Workshop for addressing fractures and dislocations given by Dr. Jaime Atri Levy for units.
- Certification of volunteers by The National Council for Standardization and Certification of Labor Competencies.
- Launch of an internal app for Hatzalah units.
- Network and site improvements.
- Revamping and updating our switchboard system.
- Renovation of our medical clinics.
- New volunteer units.
- Establishing a new secondary base in Polanco (Lagrange)
- Romina Contreras Carrasco, M.Sc., Mayor of Huixquilucan visits the local Hatzalah facilities. Huixquilucan is a suburb of Mexico City where much of the Jewish community resides.
- Launch of the “Turn on Miracles for Life” campaign
and our Purim Mishloach Manot fundraising campaign, just to name a few!
Thanks to the constant growth of our organization, we are committed to continuously striving to reinvent ourselves, and to utilize all the necessary tools to surpass what we have accomplished year after year.
In 2023, we will continue with our focus on projects and objectives to reach beyond the goals of 2022. Our organization is fully convinced that these are times for dedication without limits.
Each member of Hatzalah has on hand high-quality medical equipment and devices to treat a wide range of emergencies.
Hatzalah Mexico is a volunteer, non-profit emergency medical service created twenty-five years ago. The service provided by Hatzalah, which is performed by highly trained paramedics in pre-hospital medical emergencies, is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Each member of Hatzalah has on hand high-quality medical equipment and devices to treat a wide range of emergencies, from clinical to cardiac, pulmonary, trauma, and burn. In other words, they are equipped with everything necessary to provide top-quality pre-hospital service.
Currently, we own eleven imported ambulances, fully equipped with the finest technology to attend to any
type of emergency.
Cherishing What We Have
Alex Pollak
United Kingdom
I’ve always considered myself to be a glass-half-full kind of guy, so as I reflect on the ups and downs of the last twelve months and look ahead to 2023, I try to do so with my regular degree of optimism. With the increasingly challenging backdrop of the current world order, though, it seems more and more difficult to do so, as we deal with the so-called “winter of discontent” in the UK, a war that is raging on the Eastern front of Europe, and a world that seems to be becoming ever more divided. But then I come home from work and see my wife and daughter, and we sit around the dinner table and share stories of what we’ve done that day, and our universe seems like a better place.
I am keeping my head held high and remaining optimistic.
For me, 2022 will be remembered as a year when I lost one of my closest friends in his fight against cancer, and as terrible as that was, we shared some wonderful memories earlier in the year, traveling around the country, squeezing every ounce of what remained in his all-too-short life. As tragic as his loss has been, it has given me a new perspective on life —as these events often do— and has reminded me to cherish those things nearest and dearest to me. And I did so when my wife and I celebrated ten years of marriage this year with a special trip to Cuba, reminding us of how much we had missed traveling during Covid lockdowns.
So, as we head into the new year amidst what seems to be a mounting pile of global issues, I am keeping my head held high and remaining optimistic, and I encourage everyone to do the same by cherishing those precious moments in life with friends and family, living in the moment (yes, sometimes it’s good to put the smartphones away!) and being grateful for what we have instead of always focusing on what we don’t have.
Wishing everyone a happy Channukah and a healthy, happy and joyful 2023.
In memory of Gabe Pressman, a dear friend.
Decades Later, A Dream Fulfilled
Loretta Fabianne Nigri
Brazil
The fulfillment of my personal dreams for 2023 started a long time ago.
In the late 1990s, when I was visiting my beloved late grandfather, Pinchas Goldberg (z’l), his medical condition turned out to serve as a guidepost for my professional future. After surviving open heart surgery, my grandfather was diagnosed with aphasia, and I kept him company while he attended his therapy sessions. At the time, he was under the supervision of Mali Gil, the head of the speech and language department at the Loewenstein Rehabilitation Centre in Israel.
My grandfather’s illness and my acquaintance with Mal Gili shaped my professional future: to become a speech therapist, with a Ph.D. in audiology, so that I could fulfill my mission
of helping people.
I would be able to fulfill my mission of helping people.
Even though I was still a teenager at the time, Mali Gil foresaw that I would become an audiologist; she even suggested that my university studies could take place in Israel. But my destiny was in Sao Paolo, with my parents.
However, what Mali Gil predicted regarding my future will, at last, come to pass in 2023: I will receive my professional doctorate! Though I will always miss my dear grandfather, I am grateful that the precious time I spent with him helped me forge my career path, and I am looking forward to 2023 with great anticipation.
Meaningful Changes
Lena Reker
Germany
2022 shook us all to the core.
Whatever we expected was turned upside down and showed us that you can´t plan everything in life. Therefore, I’m cautious with my plans for 2023. Nevertheless, one can´t stop dreaming and hoping for the better. On a global level, I’m hoping for peace – a wish I never thought I would have had to make living in Europe after the Second World War.
Personally, my 2022 included a lot of changes and challenges: I started a new job and became the chairwoman of the Frankfurt chapter of the German-Israeli Friendship Association. Facing all these changes and everything that comes with them was hard sometimes, but I´m happy to say that I made the best of it. Doing something meaningful and contributing to German-Israeli friendship, hosting events and creating special memories, makes all the work pay off.
Spending time in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem would be a dream come true in 2023
For 2023, I hope that I get to spend more time with friends and family without a to-do list in my mind. For different reasons, I couldn´t travel this year, so I hope to change that in 2023. I haven´t been to Israel since 2019 and I miss it like crazy. Going back, spending time in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem would be a dream come true in 2023.
I wish all the KOL readers a happy Chanukah or a merry Christmas. May the year 2023 be filled with love,
health, and happiness!
Perspective of a young leader
Jonathan Fay
France
After a hectic 2022, a year marked by the conflict in Ukraine, the continued fallout of the pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and the football world cup in Qatar, finally comes the period of Chanukah.
Every evening for eight days, we light an additional flame, in memory of the miracle of the little vial of oil that should have lasted for only one day but lasted instead for eight.
Chanukah also celebrates another miracle; the victory of a small band of Maccabean Jews against Antiochus’s regular army.
But the 25th of Kislev became an important date more than a thousand years before the miracle of Chanukah. It was on this date that the construction of the Mishkan in the desert was completed —just nine months after the children of Israel were liberated from Egypt.
Then, the Second Temple was built and consecrated, and the 25th of Kislev was forgotten again.
Finally, the reward came, when Judah Maccabee rededicated the Temple after it had been desecrated by the odious Antiochus. This time, the 25th of Kislev became an anniversary that the Jews would never forget.
This was the darkest era in our history. And it is precisely in this darkness that the little lights of Chanukah brought a glimmer of hope, announcing the dawn of a new day, a day brighter than all the others before.
I am always willing to devote more of my time in helping raise awareness about Israel Bonds – doing what I can to raise the profile of Bonds amongst young professionals and students.
Being involved with Israel Bonds is, undoubtedly, a way to continue the miracle. Who could have truly imagined that such a small and young country would be capable of so many discoveries: producing water from air, spearheading the technology that led to the USB drive, or the swallowable medical camera, micro-irrigation, and so much more!
As a young leader, I am always keen to embrace new challenges and that’s what I want to keep pursuing in 2023 with my new company. I am always willing to devote more of my time in helping raise awareness about Israel Bonds – doing what I can to raise the profile of Bonds amongst young professionals and students. It is a wonderful opportunity to do what I love and meet many inspiring people who share the same values.
Chanukah is a time for miracles and hope for the new year. So, let's hope that 2023 will mark the end of the conflict in Ukraine, the slowdown of the pandemic, and the obsolescence of economic recession scenarios.
We must all try to be bearers of light and hope for our families in order to share some of the Hasmonean spirit and a little of that light.
Chanukah Sameah and a great hatzlacha to all in your work!
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