Hoping to Inspire Kids, Eli Beer Shares his Personal Journey and United Hatzalah Story in Upcoming Book

NEW YORK (VINnews/Sandy Eller) – A new book being released by ArtScroll tells the story of United Hatzalah founder Eli Beer, detailing how a traumatic childhood event prompted the Jerusalem resident to found an emergency medical corps with a volunteer base so broad that it offers a response time of 90 seconds or less within Israel’s capital city.

Beer was just five years old when he witnessed a bus exploding in Bayit Vegan as he walked home from school. Seeing people being killed and injured in the terror attack left Beer emotionally scarred and yearning to prevent the senseless loss of life.

“I always wondered if the people I heard screaming for help were ever saved,” Beer told VIN News. “I decided that one day, I wanted to save someone’s life.”

By the time he turned 15, Beer jumped at the opportunity to become part of an ambulance corps, but even that wasn’t enough to satisfy his innate need to help others. Beer was in an ambulance that responded to a call involving a seven year old who was choking, but by the time he and fellow first responders arrived on scene 21 minutes later, efforts to save the boy failed. That tragedy prompted Beer to start United Hatzalah.

“I realized that ambulances don’t save lives, because if they don’t get there in time, there is no one to transport,” recalled Beer. “We needed something new – people coming before ambulances – someone rushing from shul, around the corner or the local shoemaker.”

Understanding the difficulty ambulances had navigating Jerusalem’s heavy traffic, Beer ultimately pioneered the concept of ambucycles, medically equipped motorcycles, which can maneuver quickly through crowded city streets. Since its 1989 launch, United Hatzalah has invested heavily in technological advances to update its model and its volunteer base has surged past 6,000 members.

This past January, Iowa Lieutenant Governor Adam Gregg announced during his inaugural speech that he hoped to copy the United Hatzalah model to improve response times statewide, as previously reported on VIN News.

While Beer had been urged by many to write a book over the years, the demands of his work as United Hatzalah’s founder and president precluded the significant investment of time needed for the project. It was ArtScroll president Gedaliah Zlotowitz who managed to persuade Beer to collaborate on a book with a writer after the two met at wedding last year, telling him “everyone will want to read it.”

Authored by Rabbi Nachman Seltzer, 90 Seconds tells Beer’s story and is due to be released by ArtScroll’s Mesorah Publications on March 16th. Beer said that he carved time out of his schedule to work with Seltzer on the 499 page book in the hopes of igniting a spark in our community’s youth.

“I did it for the next generation, for kids who dream of building something one day,” said Beer. “So many kids have dreams and people say it can’t happen, and when they read this book, they will see that everything is possible.”

Those thoughts were echoed by Zlotowitz, who said that he believes that 90 Seconds will resonate strongly with both teens and adults.

“Eli Beer is really an inspirational story how someone took an idea of wanting to save one life and ended up saving millions,” said Zlotowitz. “It just shows that if people have a dream of doing something, nothing can stand in their way and that resonates with so many.”