בס”ד

ט”ז תמוז תשע”ז

July 10, 2017

To whom it may concern,

The rabbis and members of the Bergen County Jewish community take great pride in those among us who participate in their local Volunteer Ambulance Corps. The willingness of these individuals to serve as first responders reflects their deep commitment to the fundamental Jewish value of sustaining life. Additionally, these volunteers sanctify Shem Shamayim by working together with members of the broader community in the service of all Bergen County residents. We strongly encourage everyone to support the efforts of the various local Volunteer Ambulance Corps, and we certainly praise all those who can personally volunteer their own service to these Ambulance Corps.

It has come to our attention that some members of our community are seeking to establish a Hatzalah network for our area. We believe that introduction of such a project would create potentially damaging competition in the all-important arena of life-saving services. We also feel that this effort would undermine the wonderful sense of civic involvement fostered through the participation of the Jewish community in the existing Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Sincere efforts, through a series of meetings, to incorporate aspects of the newly suggested Hatzalah project into our current successful model have, unfortunately, proven to be unsuccessful.

We, the members of the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County listed below, therefore cannot support this new Hatzalah effort and we reiterate our support for participation in the various existing Volunteer Ambulance Corps.

Rabbi Yosef Adler

Rabbi Shalom Baum

Rabbi Eli Belizon

Rabbi Aharon Ciment

Rabbi Tanchum Cohen

Rabbi Jeremy Donath

Rabbi Shimon Feld

Rabbi Daniel Feldman

Rabbi Daniel Fridman

Rabbi Menachem Genack

Rabbi Zev Goldberg

Rabbi Shmuel Goldin

Rabbi Nati Helfgot

Rabbi Beni Krohn

Rabbi Andrew Markowitz

Rabbi Yaakov Neuburger

Rabbi Chaim Poupko

Rabbi Larry Rothwachs

Rabbi Kenny Schiowitz

Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky

Rabbi Moshe Stavsky

Rabbi Michael Taubes

Rabbi Benjamin Yudin

Rabbi Ari Zahtz