JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Extremist chareidi elements in Jerusalem are accusing United Hatzalah of transgressing prohibitions of yichud by training female EMTs to go to emergency calls. Posters plastered on walls claim that there are issues of Yichud (seclusion) when Hatzalah volunteers enter the homes of sick patients. The claim is strange since even male EMTs could also theoretically find themselves secluded with a female patient if they are first responders and other emergency personnel have yet to arrive.
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The posters claim that female EMTs are committing a double sin both by being involved in Sherut Leumi (national service) and also by being on a secondary level of prohibited intimacy, but these claims can easily be refuted.
Regarding the issue of national service, the female EMTs on United Hatzalah staff are volunteers and are not performing their national service via the organization, which does not have EMT positions open for national service. Regarding the claim of prohibited intimacy, theoretically the same objections raised against females treating males could conceivably be raised regarding males treating females. If the person requesting help is female, it would be more halachically correct that she be treated by another female than by a male and therefore the need for female EMTs is vital to strengthen the halachic aspects of emergency treatment, especially in cases of emergency childbirth.
The poster concludes by announcing an upcoming campaign against Hatzala and against the “knitted kippa rabbis” who support them. However according to the United Hatzalah website, the official rabbinic board of Hatzala (though surely other rabbonim are involved in different capacities as well) are: Rav Ezriel Auerbach, Rav Sariel Rosenberg, Rav Aryeh Dvir and Rav Yehuda Silman. None of these are “knitted-kippa rabbis” but rather leaders of the chareidi community in Israel.
Our own Taliban.
Until their life is on the line and and a trained women appears to save his life
Perhaps the frum women are complaining and don’t want strange men touching them
Thankyou
, just as the general population has facebook deciding what’s real or fake news we have vin deciding for us who is extreme, it makes me feel very comfortable, reminds me of my grandma in Russia, that always said life is so much easier when
others make the decisions for u
The yichud issue is not taking a call but rather that instead of a male-only force, you would now have a man and woman together alone driving an ambulance, etc.