Vegas rabbi and temple donate ambulance to Israel

It was one of the first things he saw that night.

Rabbi Felipe Goodman doesn’t normally watch TV on Friday evenings.

But Oct. 6 was different: Goodman had heard from someone in his congregation at Summerlin’s Temple Beth Sholom that Israel was under attack.

He could scarcely believe his eyes when he turned on the news — would have preferred not to, in fact.

“I literally see terrorists running around shooting people,” Goodman recalls from his office in the temple, backed by a wall of books. “I mean, people are transmitting with their iPhones to the TV station, and the TV station is putting the images up.

“When you start looking at bodies in the middle of the street,” he continues. “The first thing that comes to your mind: How are we going to help all these people?”

He thought of those mobile care units in flames.

“We were going to need more ambulances and medical equipment,” he says. “So I started looking into how much it would cost to sponsor an ambulance.”

The price tag: $160,000.

Goodman put out a call to his congregation, asking for donations.

They raised $250,000 in two weeks.

“I’ve never in my life raised so much money, in so little time, from so many different donors,” Goodman says. “It’s not a single person making a donation. It’s many people from throughout the congregation in many different amounts. I was blown away by this.”

And they’re not done yet.

‘I just can’t understand how they function; how they go on.’

The trip was a prescient one, turns out.

This past summer, Goodman visited Israel with a group of fellow rabbis in a retreat sponsored by AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee).

In the city of Ramleh, they toured an underground facility belonging to Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service, where they stored blood and breast milk forbabies.

“It’s unbelievable because you will never think of the two things going together,” Goodman says. “But it’s really a fascinating place. They thought that if there was going to be a war, they had to protect the blood because there’s gonna be a lot of wounded people, and they have to make sure that the rockets can’t get to it. So they built this incredible facility. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”

While there, Goodman saw firsthand how significant a role Magen David Adom would play should war break out in the country, as well as the importance of the often bullet-proof, high-tech ambulances shuttling in and out of the building, which extended some five-to-six stories underground.

A few months later, this hypothetical war became reality.

Goodman’s thoughts naturally turned to aiding the organization he had just visited, he says.

In the aftermath of the attacks, he was also particularly moved by an interview he saw with some first responders recounting a particularly horrific scene they encountered: an entire family brutally murdered in their home.

“These people who drive these ambulances, who are the first responders, I mean, they’ve seen things. They couldn’t keep their act together. They were falling apart,” Goodman recalls.

“The army is the army,” he continues. “They’re ready to fight a war. Nobody wants to do it — we know we were put in this position. But the first responders, I keep thinking of them. And I just can’t understand how they function; how they go on. So that’s how all this came about.”

Temple Beth Sholom’s fundraising is ongoing: with the proceeds contributed thus far, they’re looking to donate an emergency medical motorcycle next as well as possibly another ambulance.

Goodman is traveling back to Israel this week and will be part of a group meeting over with 250 first-responders, buying them dinner in appreciation of their efforts.

On the home front, he’s trying to do the same.

“I wanted to do something that was seen as contributing to all of Israeli society, to every religion, to everyone that’s a citizen of Israel that needs to be healed,” he explains of Temple Beth Sholom’s charitable efforts. “And right now, we need a lot of that.”

To donate, visit https://pay1.plugnpay.com/bpl/bethshollv,paytemplate=donations

Choose The Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund, and on the space to write a note, write “MDA ambulance.”

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jbracelin76 on Instagram