“I look at responding to these calls as no less of a way of saving a life than when I am a first responder on an emergency medical call.”
Gidon Kadry, a member of the OU-JLIC Mizrachi Bar-Ilan/Givat Shmuel community, spearheads the Givat Shmuel division of a national humanitarian aid project for United Hatzalah in partnership with the local municipality. Hundreds of residents of Givat Shmuel, like every city, are elderly or immunocompromised and can’t leave their homes to purchase food or medicine for fear of contracting COVID-19. These people call the United Hatzalah hotline or the Givat Shmuel call center and are forwarded to Gidon. He sends their request to a group of volunteers, assigns the task to one of them and then follows up to make certain the ‘mission was accomplished’. Thus far the Givat Shmuel taskforce has responded to 150 cases of people who should not leave their homes. “I look at responding to these calls as no less of a way of saving a life than when I am a first responder on an emergency medical call,” says Gidon who grew up in Cedarhurst, NY, attended DRS and Yeshivat HaKotel and recently finished his army service. Gidon aspires to continue his work in the field of health and become a doctor.