Volume 8, Issue 3 / Adar I  5765 / March 2005

Firefighters

Between calls they spend 8 hours each day befriending the firefighters and practicing their Hebrew.

Their very first week as volunteer firefighters in the coastal city of Ashdod, Ruth Newman of Dublin, Avital Jacobs of London, and Ari Sherr of Melbourne, found themselves aiming active fire hoses, extinguishing flames at the front of a burning building, and trying not to be blown back by the enormous pressure of the water. In the course of a few days, the three volunteers – all in Israel for their post-high school "gap year" -- assisted the professional firefighters at an apartment whose dishwasher had "gone up in flames," a synagogue with a small fire, and a car accident that required the Jaws of Life to rescue a driver.

"It's been quite exciting," Jacobs, 18, reported.

Jacobs, Sherr, and Newman are part of a Jewish Agency pilot program, in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior Fire and Rescue Commission, that has placed 13 tourist volunteers in fire stations in Ashdod, Ashkelon, Be'er Sheva, Beit Shemesh, and Tel Aviv. The one-month program includes a 3-day seminar on Zionism, and training in the station houses in maintaining the fire trucks; unrolling, connecting, and using the hoses; stabilizing ladders; and other functions such as carrying heavy tools to the fire professionals (the volunteers are not permitted to cross fire lines).

The volunteers assist not only at fires but also car accidents, terror attacks, and more mundane situations such as stuck elevators. Between calls they spend 8 hours each day befriending the firefighters and practicing their Hebrew. Program coordinator Dara Winston said that almost all the volunteers extended their experiences from four to six or even eight weeks.

"The Jewish Agency volunteers enable more firefighters to go into the fire," said Friends of Israel Firefighters Director Eldad Halachmi. "If you have six firefighters, and three need to do the back-up, then you only have three going into the fire. If you have volunteers, then all six firefighters can go into the fire."

"The bonds they make are so wonderful you can't imagine," Halachmi continued. "The firefighters treat them like younger siblings. They take them home and cook for them. It's like a little family."

The volunteers assist not only at fires but also car accidents, terror attacks, and more mundane situations such as stuck elevators.

Several firefighters in Ashdod reported that they themselves had been volunteers as teenagers, and that in the motivated, ambitious foreign volunteers they see younger versions of themselves. They affirmed enthusiastically that the three young students working with them were "a big help, part of our team and one of us now," and that "it will be strange when they are gone."

"It's nice for Jews from other countries to come and be with us," observed Ashdod fire sergeant Moshe Amar. "They free us to do the dangerous work. They are new friends. We'll miss them when they go."

Newman, 19, reported that Ashdod residents who heard that she was volunteering for the fire house were incredibly supportive, and that local businesses, such as the gym, had offered their group special deals. She especially appreciates the discount at the gym, she said with a smile, because the weight of the fire ladders and tool boxes, together with the strength needed to maneuver the hoses, "made us want to work out more."

"It's been an incredible experience," she said of volunteering with the firefighters. "I'd never have any other opportunity to do something like this."

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