First haredi female judge in U.S., Ruchie Freier, visits Magen David Adom

Judge Freier arrived in Israel to screen the film which tells the story of her struggle to run the rescue organization for women.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Judge Rachel “Ruchie Freier during her visit to MDA - December 2018
Judge Rachel “Ruchie” Freier, the first haredi female judge in the US, visited Magen David Adom in Jerusalem recently and learned about the integration of haredi women in Israel's National Rescue Organization.
In 2011, Judge Freier established the "Ezrat Nashim" organization, a unique medical emergency organization operated by female volunteers, to preserve the modesty of women during medical emergencies, especially in childbirth. The organization was established after the Hatzolah organization refused to recruit female volunteers, which led to harsh criticism. At first, Freier provided legal services to the organization, and then became the organization's director. In February 2013, the organization was approved by the New York State Department of Health.
Judge Freier arrived in Israel to screen the film which tells the story of her struggle to run the rescue organization for women. As part of her visit to Israel, Judge Freier visited the Magen David Adom station in Jerusalem, where she met the haredi women who volunteer in the organization, toured the operational dispatch center at the station and rode in the MDA’s rabbinical approved electric car driven by Chaya Vitkes, the first haredi MDA first responder who saves lives with the rabbinically approved electric car.
Judge Freier, a paramedic, accompanied a MDA intensive care unit team consisting of haredi women only and responded with them to operational calls in Jerusalem, during which the judge told MDA EMTs and paramedics about her struggle to establish a women's rescue organization in New York and the challenge to be accepted by the haredi society in the United States.
Judge Rachel Ruchie -Freier: "I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for bringing me to visit MDA. I saw not only what Magen David Adom does for the residents and especially the women who want to join, but actually I saw you in action. I saw how you respond to the call, relaxed, experienced and professional. You knew about the medications and knew what the patient's condition was. For me it was heartwarming to see that what I always say is true, that women are capable when they have the opportunity and I hope that in New York this opportunity will come even more strongly. But what makes Israel so special and your organization so special is the support of the men who share the work with you, the men you work with are respectable. I see that your interaction with them is conducted with respect, they give you the place you need and all the respect for all of you because you are doing something I find amazing. I thank MDA women for the inspiration I received during my visit to the organization that I will pack with me in a suitcase and take back to New York."