mobility – Ezer Mizion

Israeli Police and Yeshiva Students

All barriers fall to the wayside when the human heart encounters respect. Secular , Chareidi, Druze…it makes no difference. When the Israeli policeman watches an Ezer Mizion counselor, tzitzis flying in the air, gently placing a disabled child into a wheelchair with an encouraging pat on the cheek… When he sees the pride in the set of the shoulders as the counselor wheels his young charge down the plaza towards the kosel, the one place on this earth where all IQ’s are equal…When he recalls that these very special children are being cared for 24/7 by these very special counselors who are spending their vacation at Ezer Mizion’s camp and receiving no pay…respect wells up in his heart and he desperately wants to be part of this event. And so he, too, grabs hold of the handles of a wheelchair, and, for several minutes, he, too, proudly joins the parade of chessed. Continue reading Israeli Police and Yeshiva Students

A Letter Meant for Your, Our Dear Friends and Supporters

“Hello, Ezer Mizion, this is the medical transport division…”

“Thank you, this is T. Would it be possible please to have a transport for tomorrow morning, going at 10:00 a.m. and returning at 1:00 p.m.?” – “Certainly, with pleasure. Please call and confirm again tonight.”

That is the pleasantness and good feeling that we witness again and again at Ezer Mizion, an organization that has long ago become a model of exceptional public service, especially for the ill and disabled. The service is wonderful, reliable, and punctual, and they maintain full confidentiality.

In the evening, when we call to confirm, we again feel the radiating pleasantness and empathy. The actual transport staff also gives such a good feeling. They are friendly and upbeat and do their work with their entire heart.

Thank you to all those involved, and especially to Mrs. Dassy, who orchestrates the entire network.

Wishing you continued strength to do your work with joy!

Next Stop: Meron!

The family calls him a malach. A malach is both an angel and a messenger and thirteen years ago, he was truly Hashem’s messenger in saving a life. Yisroel Fischer uses his spare time- and then some- to volunteer in various capacities. He had been called to assist at a MVA with multiple victims and raced to the scene. His assignment: to move the niftarim, who were already placed in body bags, to a different area. Things were going as smoothly as such a grueling job could until… a bag moved. Yisroel rushed to open it and was shocked to see a baby girl…alive! The MDA took over, sedating her and placing her on a respirator while he returned to his assignment. Continue reading Next Stop: Meron!

A Special Shabbos

Shabbos is always special but recently Shabbos in Yeshivas Birkat Moshe was extra special. Extremely grateful for the gifts Hashem has given them, they have decided to share those gifts with Hashem’s special children. For the second time, they have invited the members of Ezer Mizion’s Matan Club for Young Adults with Special Needs to join them for a Shabbos. With maturity that belied their years, the Yeshiva students took complete responsibility for every detail. Each Ezer Mizion boy was assigned a dorm room where he roomed with Yeshiva students, sharing their conversation, their thoughts, their jokes. For an intelligent but speech-impaired, wheelchair-bound young man afflicted with CP, this alone was a heavenly taste of normalcy. Continue reading A Special Shabbos

Making the Difference between Wheelchair-Bound and Simcha-Bound

It wasn’t easy to make it to the wedding. I arrived home from work much later than I had planned. There was supper to prepare and homework to do with my kids but frozen pizza and a big sister who actually knew the math better than I did solved both problems and I made it in time for the chupa. I was patting myself on the back when I saw Adina. Adina??? She managed to come? Together with her husband?! Yes, they were both walking in together. Did I say walking? Let me qualify that. Adina’s husband has advanced Parkinsons and, though he can struggle with a walker for short distances, he is wheelchair-bound much of the time – a real challenge for someone who loves people and simchas and lives on the fourth floor… Continue reading Making the Difference between Wheelchair-Bound and Simcha-Bound

A Note Meant for You, Our Dear Friends and Supporters

Shalom !
Every week, I am assisted by Ezer Mizion’s ambulance transport for the disabled, and every day, I also benefit from transport funded by the Municipality.

It is important for me to mention to you that your drivers are very nice and friendly and are outstandingly concerned for my safety.

Your vehicles are also more comfortable than the ones the Municipality funds. May you have much success in all that you do and in all the help Ezer Mizion provides.

Good evening!
With my love,
Chaim K.

Ezer Mizion Elad Troops in Action

Ezer Mizion, the Caller ID reads.
“Are you available to drive a patient to the hospital today at four?” Eli’s forehead wrinkles in thought and he makes the calculations. “I’ll take it.”
His cell phone vibrates. “This is Dr. Kluger’s secretary,” You have an appointment in another two weeks but a slot became available today at four. Interested?”
Yes, very interested. His foot has been waiting for over a month to be seen by the overbooked, expert orthopedist. True, it’s nothing critical but the nagging pain… Perhaps he should cancel the volunteer trip? Just this once…
“No,” he heard himself say. “I’m booked this afternoon.”
A soldier in the Ezer Mizion army does not go AWOL. Continue reading Ezer Mizion Elad Troops in Action

He Is Disabled??!

We all have complaints. Some of us sit back with the attitude of ‘What can I do? If only I had such and such, then I would be able to accomplish so much more’. And then there are the rare few who take what they were given, little as that may be, and scale the heights. Daniel Mizrachi is one of those rare gems. Daniel introduces himself in a clip.

The clip begins with Daniel as an adorable 3-year-old and his promise to us all that if we believe that G-d can help us and what we want is something good, we will succeed. Today Daniel Mizrachi is twenty-four years old and gets about in a wheelchair. And how he gets about! He doesn’t just use his wheelchair to get to the local newsstand to buy a newspaper and then spend the rest of the day relaxing. Daniel wakes up each morning and says to himself, “Now why did G-d give me this new day? What can I accomplish with it?” It’s real accomplishments that Daniel is looking for… accomplishments that will help both him and others grow spiritually.
Were you born with your disability or did it happen later in life?
I was born with it. There are only five other people in the world with CP similar to what I am afflicted with. When I was one year old, we moved from Russia to Israel. I grew up in a warm, loving family. The doctors had predicted that I would never be able to go forward in life. Everyone, except my parents, thought I was retarded. People, including the doctors, spoke around me, not to me, thinking I was not able to understand a thing. I just lay there like a bump on a log. In my heart, I thought to myself: Just you wait. With my belief in G-d and my will, I’ll yet overturn worlds. If those doctors could have seen inside my head, they’d know that I was more than a bump, someone who just occupies space. Continue reading He Is Disabled??!

On the Road to Life

Ezer Mizion’s eighteen ambulances and vehicles for transport of the disabled cruise Israel’s roads and highways almost twenty-four hours a day, providing service to as many patients and mobility-impaired as possible. For each of the passengers, this service is as indispensable as the air they breathe. Most of them are oncology or dialysis out-patients who must come to the hospital a few times a week for treatment. Some are transported by car by our thousands of volunteer drivers. For others, their physical condition precludes travel by car, even with assistance. Yet, for these patients, frequent hospital trips are essential to life. Travel via ambulance is the only option but ambulance transport is not covered by Kupat Cholim. The cost of one trip by private ambulance begins at about NIS 400. Continue reading On the Road to Life

A Letter Meant for You, Our Dear Friends and Supporters

Hamodia, Israel
June 16, 2015
Saying “Thank You”
Ezer Mizion’s Assistance
We wanted to express our deep appreciation and publicly acknowledge the great and unique help tendered to us by Ezer Mizion, who is at the ready any time we have to take our wheelchair-bound mother to medical treatments, family occasions, and so on.
We cannot even imagine how we would manage without them. May Hashem pay them their just reward!
Family C.
Jerusalem