Eli Beer: ‘I hope my visit will deepen the connection’
United Hatzalah founder Eli Beer to visit Australia following support mission after Bondi terror attack.
The community is invited to Australian Friends of United Hatzalah of Israel to hear from Eli Beer – United Hatzalah of Israel’s founder and president – at evening events in Sydney on May 28 and Melbourne on May 31.
Beer’s visit will be especially significant, as less than six months earlier and within hours of the Bondi Chanukah terror attack, United Hatzalah – a volunteer-based rapid response emergency medical service in Israel with more than 8000 trained medics – decided to send a psychotrauma team immediately to Sydney to provide critical mental health first aid.
That team spent a week carrying out more than 650 interventions, supporting survivors and their families.
Beer will reflect on that at both talks and share insights about the life-saving work that United Hatzalah volunteers do on a daily basis, its community-driven model and the innovation that enables its medics to arrive at emergency scenes across Israel in under three minutes.
During his stay, he will meet Bondi terror attack first responders and people who were injured.
He told The AJN that his visit to Australia “is about strengthening a shared commitment to protecting human life, building resilience within communities and ensuring that when tragedy strikes, no one feels alone or unprepared”.
“The aftermath of the Bondi attack showed us that trauma does not stop at the scene of an attack, the impact stays with families and entire communities.
“I hope my visit will deepen the connection between Australia and United Hatzalah, so that together, we can continue to treat people in need.”
Darya Rubenstein, executive director of Australian Friends of United Hatzalah of Israel, said the arrival of United Hatzalah’s volunteers in the immediate aftermath of the Bondi attack “showed our community what global Jewish solidarity truly looks like”.
“They came to help strangers on the other side of the world because they saw them as family. That response came directly from founder Eli Beer and his upcoming visit to Sydney and Melbourne is a reminder that we are part of one people and that support, compassion and responsibility for one another do not stop at borders.”
To book tickets for the May 28 event in Bondi, go to events.humanitix.com/eli-beer-sydney
To book tickets for the May 31 event in Caulfield, visit events.humanitix.com/eli-beer-melbourne