Answering the call for help

The one-story garage that Chevra Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau County is building on West Broadway in Woodmere, between Forest and Edward avenues, has begun to take shape. Four walls are up, as well as two steel beams.
The site, at 724 W. Broadway, formerly a Citgo station, will house up to four ambulances and what Rabbi Elozer Kanner, one of three coordinators of the all-volunteer ambulance service, called a “restock room,” where drivers can replenish the medical supplies they use on calls. The other two coordinators are Mark Gross and Louis Wolcowitz.
Headquartered in Far Rockaway, the not-for-profit Hatzalah organization responds to around 7,000 calls per year, 24 hours a day, and has about 150 state-certified volunteers, Kanner said. Its coverage area stretches from the Rockaway end of the Marine Parkway Bridge, across the South Shore, including the Five Towns, North Woodmere, Atlantic Beach, East Rockaway, West Hempstead and Long Beach.
“We will have three ambulances to start,” Kanner said as he stood outside the construction site last Thursday. “We store life-saving drugs, and they need to be climate-controlled or they lose their efficacy,” he added in explaining the need for the restock room, which will also save drivers time, as they won’t need to go to Far Rockaway to restock.
The project will cost $1.5 million, and will be paid for by donations and fundraising. It will include ample parking for the volunteers who respond to calls, Hatzalah officials said, and is expected to be completed in six months. Currently, two ambulances are parked at the site for use by the volunteers. Response time has been reduced, Kanner said, and that should continue with the addition of another ambulance.

“Time is the most important variable in emergency response,” said Town of Hempstead Councilman Bruce Blakeman. “These volunteers perform a great service to the community.”
A Jewish organization bound by Jewish law, Hatzalah responds to anyone who calls. Drivers prefer to take patients to the nearest hospital to avoid delays in care, but Kanner said that some patients have complicated medical histories, and if they want to be taken to facilities such as Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, in Manhattan, Hatzalah will oblige.
Volunteers undergo training and observation that can last from six months to a year. “This is a very mature group of fellows,” said Yeoli Steinberg, the general manager of Gourmet Glatt in Cedarhurst and an enthusiastic supporter of the organization. “I believe a person has an obligation to protect their health” — a traditional Jewish belief — “and living in an area that is served by an organization that has the speed of response and quality of care not just for the patient, but for their families, is unequal to anywhere on the face of the earth.”
In 2010, Hatzalah was thinking of building a two-story manned ambulance garage and training site on a residential parcel it owned on West Broadway, but that plan encountered resistance from residents in the area. That site needed a town variance in order for an existing house to be demolished.
Instead, despite winning several legal and zoning battles, the ambulance service sold the property and purchased the former Citgo station site. According to Kanner, Town of Hempstead officials were more than helpful and assisted when needed throughout the process.
“Knowing how their volunteer members will, day or night — and on a moment’s notice — drop whatever they’re doing to help save lives of people they don’t know gives me particular satisfaction that when it’s Hatzalah calling for help, we’re able to assist,” said Town Councilman Anthony Santino.
To learn more about Hatzalah, to make a donation or to join its ranks, visit
hatzalahrl.org.