Haredim Stop Female Paramedic From Helping Sick Man

Haredi worshippers prevent paramedic from entering Jerusalem synagogue to aid stricken worshipper. "I wanted to save a person and they wouldn't let me."

Synagogue goers fend off female paramedic
Haredi worshippers prevent Ruti Levy from entering Jerusalem synagogue after calling Magen David Adom emergency services when man faints during prayers. 'I wanted to save a person and they wouldn't let me,' Levy says
Ronen Medzini • Ynet

Magen David Adom paramedic Ruti Levy was rushed Friday along with two other unit members to a synagogue in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul neighborhood after a man fainted in the site.

However, upon arrival she was prevented from entering the room and aiding the patient when ultra-Orthodox worshippers shoved her out claiming "a woman is prohibited from entering."

Levy, a 48-year-old lawyer and senior paramedic in Magen David Adom for the past 18 years wasn't physically injured during the incident, but was forced to let her two colleagues treat the man themselves inside the Satmar Hasidic synagogue.

"The three of us arrived, the men came in first and as I was about to enter – I was stopped," Levy told Ynet.

"I tried to get inside anyway but they shoved me back, said it wasn't necessary and kept pushing until I reached the stairs," she related, and noted the haredi men spoke in Yiddish, a language she does not follow. "I called Magen David Adom and asked for backup since it creates a problem if one team member is missing."

According to Levy, this was not the first time she received such treatment from members of the ultra-Orthodox community. "I was once rushed to a Mikveh and wasn't allowed in there either. The man who required treatment eventually died.

"The whole issue of Pikuach Nefesh apparently isn't an issue for these people, they are just unbelievably fanatical. They didn't think about anything that moment except preventing a woman from entering the synagogue," she said. 

"I'm not a young girl, I wore a long-sleeved garment which was modest," she said and noted "I didn't take offence, but I got irritated and angry. I wanted to save a person and they didn't allow me."

It was reported that the condition of the man who required treatment is improving. 

[Hat Tip: Maskil.]

Comments

[J]

another Hillul Hashem by the black hats.

[Norm]

This is an example of the truth of natural selection.

[harold]

but was forced to let her two colleagues treat the man themselves ... The three of us arrived, the men came in first and as I was about to enter

I assume that two paramedics were not enough to treat the man but that three were needed.

[Kiruvman]

not so clear that this is a black and white case of pikuach nefesh. a faint, is not, of itself, life threatening. Of course, it needs to be dealt with immediately, but read the report carefully, there were two other paramedics in attendance, i very much doubt that a third would contribute anything significant that could be construed in any way justifiable under Pikuach nefesh. Sorry, storm in teacup! would be interesting to know what the reaction of a paramedic in a multi-ethnic society would have been. i have attended diversity training courses in the public and private sectors in the UK, and whilst, i think we have, as a society, swung the pendulum too far in favour of political correctness, nothing gets my goat more than a self-hating jew. All is not well in the haredi garden, but i know where i would want my plants to grow. throwing out the baby with the athwater is NOT the solution!!

[tesyaa]

As far as I know we are not machmir in setting limits on pikuach nefesh. It's the opposite: we're machmir on pursuing pikuach nefesh. If it's not 100% clear that 2 paramedics can do the job, 3 would be preferable. So I'm not convinced by kiruvman's arguments.

[maven]

Harold, that was a stupid comment. As a frum medical person, who lived in Yerushalayim and comes from a hassidic family, I suggest you apologize. No one should interfere with normal medical procedure. And this was standard, and remains standard operational procedure. Watch any paramedic team operate, in the US, UK, or Israel.

Kiruvman, you are speaking nonsense. What self hating Jew are you refering to?

[Michelle]

B"H

Life is sacred. The rest is commentary.

[Jon]

I believe the Gemara defines a "hasid shoteh" as someone who refuses to save the life of a drowning woman for tzniut reasons...

[Kiruvman]

standard medical procedure that determines a 3-man team to cover serious emergencies does not dictate or swing halachic opinion regarding the need for a third person in the case of a faint!! puhleease! i am NOT suggesting that the said charedim acted correctly or politely, i am just defending the pikuach nefesh angle. self-hating jew comment was a comment on the polemical, negative nature of the blog.

[ruthie]

thank you so much...another reason not to become hasidish. oh my g-d...how crazy is that...it would be so nice if all jews observed shabbat etc. but with stories like this i don't care if my kids intermarry.
thank you!
sad...hasidishe people are the best...but like ALL humans, at times, also very very stupid.
a sweet shabbos to all

[tesyaa]

Isn't it also possible that EMT teams will hesitate to respond to chareidi sites, fearing assault? How might that result hinder pikuach nefesh situations in the future?

[harold]

Harold, that was a stupid comment

That wasn't called for. All that you have to say to my question of "I assume that two paramedics were not enough to treat the man but that three were needed." was - Yes, all three are needed.

I see many Hatzalah cars running around and it did not look to me that they had three occupants. Looked more like one person in a car. When my mother was transferred from a Brooklyn hospital to a Manhattan one there were two people in the ambulance. One was the driver and one that was with the patient in the back. It was not at all obvious that three are required.

[Garnel Ironheart]

There are many troubling aspects to this story, if it is accurate.
1) Pikuach nefesh overrides anything other than idol worship, forbidden sexual relationships and murder. Assuming they weren't suspecting this attendant of wanting to murder their friend, the Satmars clearly hold either that the Magen David on her uniform is a symbol of avodah zarah and that while she bent over to assist the ill man she would really be doing it to bow to her idol. As well, they must have feared that she would perform mouth-to-mouth resusciation with the victim, hence the concern about arayos.

In all seriousness, this is just stupidity, if accurate, but maybe that's what their new name should be: Hasidim shotim.

[Pinchos Dov]

From kiruvman: "not so clear that this is a black and white case of pikuach nefesh. a faint, is not, of itself, life threatening"

Yes it is. People lose consciousness for a lot of reasons: heart attack; stroke; diabetes; heat. You make a diagnosis, and then you treat. The article identifies Ruti Levy as a senior paramedic. She had two other male "unit members". They may have been paramedics, but also could have been EMTs, emergency medical technicians, a lesser grade. Those are the categories in New York, I'm not sure about Israel. In any event, if three unit members were there, with six hands and three brains, they all should have been utilized to insert an IV and do whatever else has to be done.

[Mr. Apikoros]

Harold, it was an extremely stupid comment. What if you had a sudden heart attack, or more likely a problem with heart rhythm, and needed to be defibrillated, while you were seated on the mens' side of your synagogue?

If the EMS tech was a woman, would you or your buddies say, "No, let the dude die right here, because a woman can't tread upon these hallowed halls of the mens' side of the synagogue"?

Sometimes I think this blog is a race to the bottom between the Haredim and Ba'al Teshuvas and those out to get the Haredim.

[harold]

If the EMS tech was a woman, would you or your buddies say, "No, let the dude die right here, because a woman can't tread upon these hallowed halls of the mens' side of the synagogue"?

The story clearly stated that there were 3 EMS techs of which 2 were men and one was a woman. I am sure (or at least hope) that if all three were women the story would be different and if not and they refuse to allow treatment then I would consider them not only fools but criminally negligent.

[jay]

Harold, for all you know she was the first one to enter the scene, she was equipped to handle the emergency and they might have been involved with other tasks on the scene that were pressing and relevant. The fact is , she was the first one at the entrance of the building and treatment was delayed because she was female. Since neither you nor I were there, we have no data as to why she was there. It is, however, reasonable to assume it is because she was the best person at the time. The fact also is: there are other cases reported by the same paramedic wherein lives were endangered or lost because of religious fanaticism.

[Alter Kocker]

Thats all-no more paramedics sent to the Chareidi shuls or neighbourhoods. If this is the way they are going to react, then let them just learn to treat each other or buy a whole bunch of coffins.

[Successful Messiah]

Jay, next time read the article before you make stupid comments. The article clearly states that the male paramedics entered the shul first.

[jay]

Your right, I did miss that point. Nonetheless, my points are still relevant. They had no business denying her entrance.

[rabbidw]

Harold, do you know why Doctors are allowed to drive HOME on shabat, after responding to an emergency? Do you know that the Doctor is encouraged to view each and every call as a potential pikuach nefesh? Pikuach nefesh is a trump card and tops just about everything else. And if standard procedure calls for three, that is what rules. The doctor, or the expert on hand make the determination, not the idiots who can't speak hebrew.
My attitude is to refuse to serve such a population of ignorant a-holes and let Darwins laws triumph, but I am wrong. We have to deal with them. It is so hard to deal with stupidity.

[MM]

I had a heart attack while I was living in the Netherlands, and three--count'em,three-- medical personnel responded, plus a motorcycle police escort. Since the Dutch are not known for throwing money around needlessly, I am sure that they were not paying for more personnel than were needed. One drove the ambulance to the hospital, and the other two treated me while we rode. I was very sick, sicker, in fact than I realized, and the two men were very busy treating me and coordinating my care with the emergency room doctor at the hospital. They saved my life, and I bless every one of them. They are my angels.

Besides which if the chasidim are so reluctant to have even necessary medical interactions with women, why is it OK for them to lay hands on a woman, pushing and shoving? I don't know about Israeli law, but in the US, that is an assault, and it's a crime, and they should be arrested.

[Mr. Apikoros]

Harold, I don't give a flying fugazi if one was male, one was female, and the third was Ru Paul. These haredi idiots had no right to deny entrance to the female tech. I don't care if the male paramedics entered first, or if they entered last.

It's that simple; no explanation nor rationalization is needed. Capice?

[A E ANDERSON]

Next time, send a few police units to respond with the EMT/paramedics. Then arrest the interfering haredi hooligans. Problem solved.

N.B.- If they "shoved" her, they can be prosecuted for simple assault.

That is how the state needs to handle outbursts of law-breaking.

Then the haredim can keep their fellow lawbreakers, the Arabs, company in gaol.

[R]

Why are they so small minded?
They have no respect for human life.
So meanwhile she had to call in more units to respond because they didn't allow her in the building.

[GenericJew]

Satmars have alway been antizionist so they are also antisemitic. I say that a Satmar cannot be counted in a minyan till he converts and has a nice bris milah.

[Pessie Gelb]

The men in the synagogue were not allowed to touch her to push her out of the synagogue and should have let her in, however Magen David Adom dispatchers should be more sensitive to the desires of religious jews and not send female paramedics or EMTs to men's sections of orthodox synagouges and especially not to men's mikves. Secular Israelis are notorious for their lack of sensitivity to the needs and desires of charaidim or even modern orthodox.

[Pessie Gelb]

Once I met a female paramedic in Brooklyn who told me that she once responded to a call in williamsburg in which a woman needed emergency treatment and that chasidim would not allow her in to treat this sick woman because the female paramedic was wearing pants instead of a skirt. They instead called hatzule, an all male organization with no female members, to treat this sick woman instead of letting this woman be treated by a female paramedic because the female paramedic was wearing pants.
This does not make sense. Why do they prefer that a male paramedic should treat a female patient. They should rather let a female paramedic treat a female patient even if the female paramedic is wearing pants. By the way, it is part of the uniform of female paramedics to wear pants.
As I have said before on this blog, I think that many of the men in hatzule are in hatzule so that they should be allowed by jewish law to do things that they otherwise wouldnt be allowed to do such as touch women and break shabos, using pikiach neifeish as their heter to do what their yaitzer horas want them to do.

[Shalom]

FYI, in Israel there will normally only be one Paramedic in a team, the others will be EMT at best, lightly trained volunteers at worst.

Secondly, this is indicative of the imbalance between Bein Adam Lehavero and Bein Adam Lamakom in the Haredi world.

[Steve]

When Hashem learns of this, is she gonna be unhappy!

[.]

"not so clear that this is a black and white case of pikuach nefesh. a faint, is not, of itself, life threatening. Of course, it needs to be dealt with immediately, but read the report carefully, there were two other paramedics in attendance, i very much doubt that a third would contribute anything significant that could be construed in any way justifiable under Pikuach nefesh. Sorry, storm in teacup! "

Kiruvman, consider learning some halacha and medicine, you're obviously ignorant of both.

[Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf]

You all seem to have missed this paragraph:

According to Levy, this was not the first time she received such treatment from members of the ultra-Orthodox community. "I was once rushed to a Mikveh and wasn't allowed in there either. The man who required treatment eventually died.

Yes, this absurd Haredi policy does lead to deaths sometimes.

[shneerhere]

Funny, an Arab bomber doesn't discriminate between Jewish men and women when he detonates his destruction, yet Hareidi Jews somehow discriminate when they receive healing.

How sick is that?

[yitz]

It is pikuach nefesh. If you cannot see that, then you should not be in a position of leadership or decision making. Please find a study hall, take out a gemarah, and do not come out ever. This is the type of fanaticism that the rest of the world sees and finds total disgust, because being machmir is more important than life itself. If you have to second guess the situation like this, then you are the self-hating Jews, because you are not choosing life. You hate all other Jews, because they won't play the who can be more self-righteous, more machmir, more holier than thou, etc. You despise those who refuse to be like you as if to say that the only type of Judaism is your version. There is a lack of moral authority from any sect that fails to respect others orthodoxy. If you cannot live your life as just a simple orthodox Jew without the sociological us vs. them attitude, moshiach is not coming anytime soon. And, the sad thing is only gets worse. And, I wonder why I am involved in this thing. It's sad! The only thing that keeps me here is that you have to stand alone against this nonsense sometimes. Rabbinic leadership continues to focus on all the wrong issues. The non-Jewish and Jewish world is upside down.

Kiruvman said: not so clear that this is a black and white case of pikuach nefesh. a faint, is not, of itself, life threatening. Of course, it needs to be dealt with immediately, but read the report carefully, there were two other paramedics in attendance, i very much doubt that a third would contribute anything significant that could be construed in any way justifiable under Pikuach nefesh. Sorry, storm in teacup! would be interesting to know what the reaction of a paramedic in a multi-ethnic society would have been. i have attended diversity training courses in the public and private sectors in the UK, and whilst, i think we have, as a society, swung the pendulum too far in favour of political correctness, nothing gets my goat more than a self-hating jew. All is not well in the haredi garden, but i know where i would want my plants to grow. throwing out the baby with the athwater is NOT the solution!!

[David]

They're so afraid that a woman will contaminate their shul, but it sounds like they weren't afraid to put their hands on her so they could shove (grope?) her. So much for shomer negia.