Holocaust Survivors Donate MDA Ambulance, Their Grandson Delivers Samaria Couple’s 7th Child

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Holocaust survivors Shimon Lipcsyz and Augusta Lipcsyz-Brand immigrated to Israel 8 months ago and wished to donate a large sum of charity for an important state cause. After much thought they decided to donate a new ambulance to MDA. Their grandson, Avraham Appelbaum, is a senior medic and volunteer in MDA and drives the ambulance donated by his grandparents.

During a recent shift on the ambulance Avraham and volunteer Yael Malka were alerted to a woman in advanced contractions who was about to give birth near the village of Eli in Samaria. The ambulance raced to the site and assisted the couple, Avraham and Meital Miara, in delivering a new baby girl.

After the parents heard the special story of the holocaust survivors who had bought the ambulance which they used for the birth, the couple, who live in Har Bracha on Mount Gerizim, decided to call their seventh child Neta, meaning sapling. The name symbolized the new roots being laid down in Israel by the immigrant grandparents.

After the birth a special moving meeting took place between the parents of the new baby, the MDA volunteer who helped deliver the child and his grandparents who donated the ambulance in which the child was born.

Avraham Appelbaum said that “my grandparents thought for a while about where to contribute money. My grandfather called me, showed me his yellow star and said that the Nazis wanted to murder him in the Holocaust and now he wishes to save life in Israel and donate an ambulance to MDA. After the birth which took place in my ambulance I told the story to Grandpa and he said that ‘just for such moments we donated the ambulance.'”

Avraham Miara, the proud father, said that “we asked to meet the grandparents and thank this special family. We called the baby Neta to connote the deep roots forged in the land of Israel and as a way of thanking them. It was a special, moving meeting.”