City Notes: MDA on high alert ahead of annual Lag Ba’omer gathering on Mount Meron

A roundup of local affairs.

By COMPILEDTAMARA ZIEVE
Meir Greenstein with his birthday cake. (photo credit: COURTESY BAT YAM MUNICIPALITY)
Meir Greenstein with his birthday cake.
(photo credit: COURTESY BAT YAM MUNICIPALITY)
NORTH
Magen David Adom was set to collaborate with security forces this week for the annual public celebration of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yohai on Mount Meron, as well for Lag Ba’omer events across the country, with MDA raising its alert in the North from Wednesday morning through Friday morning.
During Lag Ba’omer, which began on Wednesday evening, northern MDA branches were prepared to go on highest alert, to provide a full, immediate and quality response to every call received. For the hundreds of thousands of people attending the celebration at Meron, MDA forces from the Yarden Region and other branches from all over the country were positioned around the mountain to be on hand to provide medical attention.
Ahead of the festivities, MDA set up a special control center on Mount Meron and two clinics, one in the Meron Yeshiva and the other at the foot of the mountain, manned by doctors, paramedics and medics. Next to the rabbi’s grave, hundreds of paramedics, medics, employees and volunteers were deployed to provide immediate medical attention to anyone requiring treatment or evacuation to the clinics; intensive care units, ambulances, a mass casualty station and mobile clinics were also set up.
Last year, hundreds of MDA staff treated some 813 injuries at Mount Meron during the event, including bruises, dehydration and excessive consumption of alcohol. According to MDA, last year a total of 826 people were injured on Lag Ba’omer nationwide.
1,000 demonstrate against air pollution in Haifa
Some 1,000 residents of Haifa and its bayside suburbs participated in a demonstration in Kiryat Haim organized by the Coalition for Public Health NGO. Residents have been protesting air pollution since the Health Ministry’s release of data last month linking increased cancer incidence in the Haifa Bay area to air pollution.
On the event’s Facebook page, titled Fighting for Life, organizers wrote: “We, the residents, are taking responsibility for our health. We are all going out to demonstrate together, all the residents of the area whose health has been harmed for dozens of years already by industrial pollution. Only together can we influence the authorities to preserve our lives and to stop the expansion of the polluting industry.”
The demonstrators demanded to breathe clean air and that decision-makers reduce the concentration of hazardous substances found in Haifa Bay, stop plans for further industry expansion in the region, declare the area an air-polluted zone and conduct an in-depth, updated epidemiological survey.
CENTER
Community walk raises funds for lone soldiers
Soldiers from the elite Egoz unit joined with some 1,200 adults, families and Ra’anana schoolchildren in a community walk last weekend, in an event expected to raise nearly NIS 250,000 for Habayit Shel Benji (Benji’s Home). The center is home to 48 lone combat soldiers, built in memory of London-born Maj. Benji Hillman, who was killed in action in the Second Lebanon War.
Habayit Shel Benji opened in Ra’anana in 2013 after the Hillman family raised millions of dollars, primarily from overseas donations, to maintain Benji’s legacy as an Egoz commander who took particular care of lone soldiers. The center also offers guidance and support for all lone soldiers on their release from the army.
Bat Yam celebrates 100th birthday of 21 residents
Bat Yam celebrated the 100th birthday of 21 city residents last week at the Eilat club. Dozens of people including relatives attended the birthday celebrations, organized by the Association for Bat Yam’s Elderly.
Among those celebrating was Meir Greenstein, a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor who passed through eight labor camps. Despite his age, he is a an active community volunteer and assists three elderly women suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. At the event he was awarded an official certificate by, among others, Mayor Yossi Bachar and social security volunteer Shulamit Goldman.
Salute wine festival ushered into TA
The Salute 2015 Wine Festival will take place next Wednesday and Thursday at Tel Aviv’s Tahana complex, having already been held in Haifa, Beersheba and Ashdod. The festival is geared toward the business sector, hoteliers, restaurateurs and wine critics, as well as any wine lover or person interested in familiarizing themselves with the world of wine; it will include musical ensembles and live performances by artists as well as a jazz show and a Brazilian dance troupe.
Tickets are NIS 75 for visitors and NIS 50 for those with Digital Tel Aviv cards, entitling festival-goers to a wine glass with which to taste 120 different vintages from various wineries. There will also be booths selling a range of delicacies, including homemade cheeses from local dairies, olive oil, dim sum, gourmet chocolate and pastries.
SOUTH
Therapy group for mothers of preschoolers opens in Sderot
Ten Sderot mothers of preschool-age children have begun meeting regularly in recent days, with the aim of improving family functioning and helping mothers deal with setting boundaries, anger, rebellion, sibling rivalry, feelings of guilt, frustration and loneliness. The group therapy is an initiative of the municipality’s welfare department, in partnership with the Open House.
The group is led by two social workers, one from each of the aforementioned bodies; the objective is to furnish the women with support, guidance, inclusion and tools to cope with various problems.
“The need to open the group for mothers of preschool children came from our daily acquaintance with mothers of young children,” explained social worker Keren Roi. “The mothers raise many questions of the subject of raising children, and it is evident they need group empowerment and support.”
Open House social worker Galit Schiller noted that parents of preschoolers need a range of support from family, friends and the community and that the therapy group, which provides individual and group support, “will lead them to a place where they are more connected to themselves and thus also to their children.”
The participants were identified via various projects taking place at the Open House and welfare division, and will take part in 15 sessions. Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi said the program was the result of “broad thinking and the joining of forces between several entities and municipal services,” and that the group would serve as the basis for future development of additional models to benefit the city’s residents.
Police volunteer saves Beersheba baby’s life
The Israel Police praised volunteer Sec.-Sgt. Zvia Shwartz for resourcefulness and a rapid response, which they say saved the life of a one-and-a-half-year-old baby in Beersheba last weekend.
Southern District police received a call for help from the baby’s family in the Neveh Noy neighborhood, saying the baby had fallen and stopped breathing. Sgt.-Maj. Eviatar Selik and Shwartz arrived on the scene within minutes; Shwartz, who had previously completed a CPR course, examined the child and noticed he had no pulse and was not breathing. She immediately began to resuscitate him, providing a cardiac massage.
Thanks to her quick action, the baby soon began breathing independently and was taken for further treatment to the city’s Soroka University Medical Center.


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