New defibrillators were placed in Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue on Wednesday evening, kicking off a program funded by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews to outfit the Holy City’s houses of worship with these life-saving devices.
Fellowship President Yael Eckstein said that 230 additional devices will be distributed to other Jerusalem synagogues in time for the High Holidays, which begin with Rosh Hashana on the evening of September 6.
“Defibrillators that we will install in the coming weeks in synagogues in the city are important news for tens of thousands of worshippers,” said Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion. “In synagogues, unfortunately, cardiac events can occur that require a quick response, the first four minutes from the moment such an event occurs, look completely different when there is access to an electric resuscitation device and the existence of a malfunction in the environment is often the difference between life and death.”
At the kick-off event, a 38-year-old Jerusalem resident told his story of how four years ago he was at shul when he suffered from a heart attack. The father of five said that part of his resuscitation was 12 electric shocks from a defibrillator.
The project, a collaboration of the Jerusalem Municipality, Magen David Adom, the Fellowship and Cross River Bank, is the only one of its kind in the country.
“We are extremely grateful to our more than 600,000 donors throughout the world,” Eckstein said. “Thanks to them, we are able to improve and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis and Jews around the world.”