tikkun olam

We had the incredible opportunity to hear from Dr. Anthony Luder, Director of Pediatrics at Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat.  Dr. Luder spoke of Ziv's involvement in treating wounded Syrian civilians, who are left injured on Israel's boarder.  What seemed to have initially begun as a few people and what they thought initially was a one time event has turned into Israel treating over 900 Syrian civilians, 266 of whom have been treated at Ziv.  These patients, often very severely injured, have been treated at no cost to them.  Rather, Israel has absorbed the costs and continues to help these Syrians.

We learned that 90% of those treated are male and 17% are children.
Israel has no idea if these men are rebels in Syria's civil war, as they deny it, but regardless these Israeli doctors say that for humanitarian reasons they cannot turn these patients away.

What is happening is that injured and sick Syrians are being left on Israel's border at locations heavily patrolled by the IDF.  The IDF picks them up, brings them to an army field hospital and treats them or sends them to a civilian hospital.  From there they are treated and then returned to the border, to return to Syria.  Whether patients are treated for a day or a few months, they are returned to the border.

All of this is done at tremendous cost to Israel, from providing surgeries, medicines, to providing prosthetic limbs.  Why is Israel doing this? Dr. Luder says because its what we do, its tikkun olam, what we can do to make the world just a little better.

We were honored to hear from Dr. Ludor and inspired and proud of this humanitarian work of Israel, so of course we left tzedakah and a small piece of the spirit of our St Louis Jewish community and the many dollars that were given to us to perform this mitzvah.

We can't wait to hear more about Ziv and these incredible Israeli doctors!