Meet Montreal's crew of Jewish emergency responders

Simcha Wenger was at his Montreal synagogue when he got the call: come quickly, a man in his 30s is choking.

Wengerand a group of fellow worshippers hopped in a car and were at the nearby home in minutes.

The man was, in fact, having a heart attack.

In those first crucial moments before paramedics arrived, Wengergrabbed adefibrillator from the car and shocked the man back to life.

Without his care, Wenger believes, the man mightnot have survived.

"We followed up with him after," Wenger recalled during a recent training session for HatzolohMontreal, aJewish emergency response service.

"I ended up spending three hours in the hospital."

Wenger, who runs a grocery store onPark Avenue, is one of roughly 80 of thegroup's volunteers. There are also rabbis, teachers, businessmen even a magician (he sometimes uses magic tricks to cheer up kids after a scare).

Together, they ensure someone is available 24 hours a day.

"Our response time is generally between two and four minutes. Often that makes the difference between life and death," said Sheldon Goldberg, one of the organization's directors.

One division serves the primarily Hasidic community in theOutremontarea.The other services Orthodox Jews in thecity's west end, includingCte-des-Neiges,Cte-Saint-LucandHampstead.

Not all the calls are so consequential in nature. Volunteers can end up treating anything from abad fall toheat exhaustion.

In Orthodox Judaism, men and women have clearly defined gender roles, and only men currently serve as first responders inthe Montreal organization. There is an all-femaleorganization in Brooklyn aimed at better serving women in the community.

In Montreal, a dozen women serve as dispatchers, taking calls from their homes and connecting those in need with a nearby volunteer.

"We have a dispatch centre set up right in my kitchen," saidChanyHerzog, who lives in Outremont. She notifies 911, she says, for anything that warrants serious medical attention.

Watch ChanyHerzogrelay a call from her kitchen:

Hatzoloh dispatcher

6 years ago

Duration 0:07

Hatzoloh dispatcher

A legal'grey zone'

The volunteers are trained by paramedics and treat anyone in need, but they are not permitted to transport patients to hospital and, if an injury or illness is serious, Urgences-Sant is contacted right away.

The service operates in a kind of "grey zone," Goldberg said.

The organization is overseen by a medical director and covered by liability insurance, and yet, Golberg stresses, "We're not here to replace Urgences-Sant or the fire department."

"We're here as an adjunctand to offer an extra service to our community to help them in their time of need, to have the best outcome," he said.

"The idea is basically community members trying to help community members."

StefanOverhoff, a spokesperson forUrgences-Sant, said the service isviewed by paramedics as an asset, not a burden.

"We've been working together for years," he said. "It works well. It's a help to the population."

Hatzolah has two official vehicles, but most of the volunteers use their own cars.

Recently, a Hatzoloh volunteer Shalom Grunwald, the owner of a bagel shop was the first at the scene to treat a man who had suffered a seizure. Grunwaldgave the man oxygen and kept him stable untilUrgences-Santarrived.

"We don't ask age, sex, religion," Goldberg said.

Tight-knit community

Montreal'sHatzolohservice wasfounded in 1996. Itdepends on donations from the Jewish communityto maintain itssupply of medical equipment, such asEpiPens, stretchersand defibrillators.

Wengersaid having access to someone from their own community made them feel more at home. If more specialized care is needed, they get it.

"We will tell them when they need to go to the hospital," he said.

The first such service was founded in the late 1960s in Brooklyn, N.Y., as an attempt to improve emergency medical response and address cultural concerns of the Yiddish-speaking Hasidic community.

There is a similar organization serving the Jewish community inToronto and others in countries across the globe including Argentina, Brazil,Mexico and South Africa.

In Montreal, volunteers must study emergency response textbooks and attend classes, for a combined total of 150 hours. They're then tested,and only those who pass with high marks are allowed to join Hatzoloh.

Yisroel Menkes, who teaches at a Montreal rabbinical school, said he knew he wanted to join Hatzoloh when, as a 12-year-old, he began leafing through his uncle's emergency response booklet. The photos were unsettling and intriguing.

He remembers thinking,"This is for me. I'm terrified of blood."

Menkes, now a father of six, manages to carve out time for volunteer serviceand the required monthly training sessions.

"Living in a community, you always want to give back," he said.

Watch the Hatzoloh members in action:

Montreal's Jewish rescue squad

6 years ago

Duration 2:22

Montreal's Jewish rescue squad