Why doctors come volunteer in Israel at war: ‘I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t’
Filling in for Israeli doctors called to military duty or preoccupied with emergency preparedness, these 5 physicians are picking up the slack wherever and however they are needed
Renee Ghert-Zand is the health reporter and a feature writer for The Times of Israel.
As soon as New York thoracic surgeon Dr. David Zeltsman heard about the horrific attacks on Israel by Hamas on October 7, he decided he had to go to Israel and help.
“The first thing I did was sign up on every possible available website to volunteer to come to Israel on a moment’s notice,” Zeltsman told The Times of Israel.
Notwithstanding his busy practice with Northwell Health, New York State’s largest healthcare provider, he wanted to take time off to lend a hand in an Israeli hospital.
Some 7,000 doctors of all specialties from the US and other countries have expressed their willingness to volunteer and have registered through the Israeli Health Ministry. The ministry is vetting all the applications and matching the staffing needs of hospitals, community clinics, and first-aid and rescue organizations with foreign volunteers. None of the volunteers will serve alongside the IDF near the front lines.
So far, over 150 doctors have arrived from outside the country for a minimum of two weeks to jump in wherever needed while many of their Israeli counterparts are called to military duty or preoccupied with emergency preparedness.
With the expectation that the war will continue for many months, Israel will need volunteers to remain on standby and be ready to get on a plane at a moment’s notice.
The Times of Israel spoke with five American physicians who had already arrived, asking them why they wanted to volunteer during the war, and what their experience had been.
Dr. Louis Profeta, emergency physician from Indianapolis
“Being Jewish, having a deep and lifelong bond with the Jewish people and Israel, and having a skill set that I could use immediately made me want to volunteer,” said Dr. Louis Profeta about why he is in Israel.
Profeta, an emergency medicine specialist at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, used an existing connection with Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya and help from the Jewish Federation of Greater Indianapolis to get the ball rolling.
Around 15 years ago, Profeta spent time at Galilee Medical Center with a group of other American doctors who had come to train with Israeli physicians for mass casualty events.
“I took some of their protocols back to Indianapolis and we implemented them because [the Israelis] do some creative, commonsense things in mass casualty events that are worth adopting,” he said.
Since arriving in Israel during the war, Profeta has been teaching some of the medical trainees and young doctors at Galilee Medical Center while its more senior physicians are either on the front lines or busy planning for contingencies.
“The senior doctors are not able to do the typical didactic teaching on a daily basis, so that is where I am filling in those gaps. For instance, I am going to see patients with young doctors and also teaching them how to do bedside ultrasounds,” Profeta said.
The two things he said he has been most impressed by are the strength and resilience of Israelis and the depth of gratitude they feel for him and other volunteers who have come to contribute.
“They love that we’re here even though we may not be doing a lot. The fact that we’re here pumps them up. One guy told us that we are his medicine,” Profeta shared.
The emergency physician brought a large sum of cash from donors in the Indianapolis area. He’s been handing it to soldiers to buy personal items and military supplies, and he’s used some of it to shore up medical supplies at the hospital — in addition to having brought some medical equipment from home.
“A favorite cigar bar of mine in Indianapolis sent me over here with a ton of cigars to pass out to the soldiers. It was about being able to try to give them something to smile about. I also brought over cards handwritten by kids for them,” Profeta said.
Profeta’s colleagues in Indianapolis graciously filled in for him while he was gone, but after two weeks in Israel, he had to get back to his regular job.
“I’ve never felt more Jewish in my entire life as in these last couple of weeks,” he said as he prepared to head home.
Dr. David Zeltsman, thoracic surgeon from New York
Like Profeta, Dr. David Zeltsman volunteered at Galilee Medical Center. The connection with the hospital in Nahariya was made thanks to vascular surgeon Dr. Mark Kissin, a colleague from Northwell Health. Kissin, who speaks Hebrew, called hospitals all over Israel asking if they needed help, and Galilee Medical Center’s administration answered in the affirmative.
After being granted temporary licenses from the Israeli Health Ministry, Zeltsman and Kissin flew to Israel. At the airport train station, they happened to meet Profeta, and the three forged a firm friendship.
Zeltsman, who grew up and did his initial medical training in the former Soviet Union, praised Galilee Medical Center for its foresight.
“What was clear from our initial call with the hospital was its understanding that the time to come to Israel was now, while things were still under control and relatively quiet — not when all hell breaks loose and there is a war on two fronts and there are mass casualties up north,” Zeltsman said.
“The idea was for us to get acquainted with the hospital and its systems, the geography, and where we would need to go know what we would need to do if God forbid something happened. This preparedness is the best thing a hospital administration can do,” he said.
Zeltsman was amazed and grateful that not one of his patients at home expressed anger or disappointment about their procedures being rescheduled or performed by other surgeons when he announced that he was going to Israel.
He was ready to share his medical knowledge and lend a pair of surgical hands at Galilee Medical Center but knew that as a volunteer, his job was to do whatever the hospital needed and to let Israelis know they were not alone.
“It didn’t matter to us where to go or what to do. We would come and clean the dishes, wash the floors, or operate. It didn’t matter. We just needed to get in here and do whatever would be necessary,” he said.
When asked why he felt compelled to volunteer, Zeltsman, who has always wanted to immigrate to Israel, answered bluntly.
“I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t,” he said.
Prof. Suzanne Karan, anesthesiologist from Rochester, NY
Prof. Suzanne Karan, an anesthesiologist, medical educator, and researcher at the University of Rochester, was in Israel for a family event on October 7 when Hamas perpetrated its devastating attack on Israel.
Karan returned home shortly afterward but immediately began trying to learn how she could come back to Israel to volunteer. By networking with a large group of like-minded anesthesiologists from around the world and cold-calling Israeli hospitals, she ended up with an invitation to volunteer at Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem.
“Eight years ago, I did a research sabbatical at Hadassah. So I already had a connection to the people here, which I had maintained,” she said.
Karan said that doing her own reaching out to Israeli hospitals made more sense to her than waiting for the Health Ministry to match her with one. She still, however, had to submit all necessary application paperwork and wait for a temporary license to practice at Hadassah.
“I and a bunch of other anesthesiologists thought it was probably somewhat useful to at least just come, get oriented, and get some conditional licenses so that God forbid if we were needed, we could even come back again. We felt, why wait? Let’s just get this going,” Karan said.
Karan is covering the cost of her trip herself and is staying with friends in Jerusalem. She landed in Israel on a Monday night and was at Hadassah the next day.
“I showed up to the operating room Tuesday morning and they already had stuff for me to do,” she recalled.
Using a sports metaphor, Karan likened the presence of volunteer physicians at Hadassah to providing a “bench.”
“It’s not like they can’t do anything without us, but there are people who have gone off to the military reserves and some non-Israeli doctors who have gone back to their home countries, so I think without us they just might be a little bit more stressed. It’s good to have a couple of extra people on hand,” Karan said.
“For instance, I have a friend here at the hospital whose son came back from Gaza unexpectedly for a day. With extra people being here, he could take the time off to be with his son. If that’s what we can do, then that’s great,” she said.
Karan brought with her a suitcase filled with EZ-IO kits, which are medical equipment used in trauma situations to insert a needle into a bone to get fluids flowing into a patient while medical staff looks for more conventional intravenous access.
“My colleagues in Rochester helped me arrange this. I was able to fundraise $10,000 for these kits from members of my department — 80% of whom are not Jewish. They just gave out of the goodness of their heart,” she said.
Dr. Avi Schlager, pediatric surgeon from Boca Raton, Florida
As a pediatric surgeon, Dr. Avi Schlager also has training in adult surgery and trauma. His skills were identified by the Health Ministry as needed among the first wave of volunteers invited to come to Israel.
A specialist in minimally invasive surgery, especially on neonates, Schlager was matched with Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikvah.
With help from the Jewish Orthodox Women’s Medical Association, Schlager got his paperwork organized so a temporary license could be issued to him by the Health Ministry.
“JOWMA was fantastic. They arranged for the flights and accommodation. They had answers for everything, including medical coverage, malpractice practice coverage, and more. They had all the details to allow the trip to come together in a very quick fashion,” Schlager said.
During his two weeks in Israel, Schlager has been asked to fill in for surgeons who have been called to military duty in the field. He has performed complex abdominal surgeries and fixed a severe bowel obstruction. The young patients he has attended are of various ages, and both Jews and Arabs.
Schlager has a personal stake in the war, with many family members living in Israel, some of whom are serving in the IDF. He lived in Israel on and off for five years, studying in a yeshiva and also doing research in the middle of his surgical residency.
He is grateful for the invitation to help out, teach, and learn at Schneider during the war. It hasn’t been easy leaving his wife and four young children at home, but he feels he is doing the right thing.
“I truly believe that we’re living through one of the inflection points in Jewish history… and we’re going to look back on this time and ask ourselves whether we did everything we could to help in this critical moment,” Schlager said.
“I am grateful I can contribute [to Israel] in the way that I’m most comfortable and that I feel I can be most helpful,” he said.
Dr. Jeffrey Forman, rehabilitation physician from Boston
Although Israel has a reputation for good rehabilitation medicine, even before the war broke out the country had too few spaces available for in-patient and out-patient rehabilitation. Israel also needs more medical professionals to devote themselves to the specialty.
As the government and hospitals began addressing the question of how all the war injured would be rehabilitated physically and psychologically, Dr. Jeff Forman arrived to volunteer at Sheba Medical Center outside of Tel Aviv.
Forman, who had a 30-year career in rehabilitation medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, decided he could not sit at home when he heard the horrific news of October 7.
“I wanted to use my skills as much as possible to help out here as much as I could,” he said.
Forman saw a lot of injured soldiers in Sheba’s new rehabilitation center for soldiers and other war wounded.
“It’s hard to watch, but I feel that this is a very good place for them,” he said.
Amid all the pain and suffering, Forman has been buoyed by the special way in which Israelis show solidarity in times of adversity.
“As an American, it’s fantastic and unusual for me to see so many people rally around every patient. You almost can’t walk through the hallway for all the soldiers bringing sweets for their fellow soldiers,” Forman said.
“Each injured soldier put a flag up from their unit in his room. They’re bolstered by their pride in their units and the presence of all their friends and comrades, and they help each other. It’s truly amazing,” he said.
