Five Towns therapists honored for helping injured IDF soldiers
Five physical and occupational therapists from the Five Towns and Far Rockaway were honored last week for their work as volunteers helping injured Israel Defense Force soldiers in the Negev Desert in southern Israel.
Physical therapists Daniel Aryeh and Robert Weinberg, both of Woodmere, and Moshe Richmond, of Lawrence, and occupational therapists Jesse Vogel, of Far Rockaway, and Sarah Yastrab, of Woodmere, were recognized at an event hosted by Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, in collaboration with ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran, on Aug. 14.
ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran is a 40-acre rehabilitation center for people living with or affected by disability. It has 170 residents and 190 special-education students with severe disabilities, and is also home to the Kaylie Rehabilitation Medical Center, the first and only rehabilitation hospital in southern Israel.
The volunteers spent time at the Kaylie Center with soldiers who were injured in the war with Hamas. Because of the conflict, staff that were evacuated have not yet returned, leaving the facility short-staffed.
“People from our community, from the Five Towns, sacrificed themselves, their family and vacation time and used it to go to Israel to help soldiers and others at ADI Negev,” said Dr. Shilo Kramer, the center’s director of orthopedic rehabilitation. “They have skills as physical and occupational therapists to treat patients from the Negev and provide high-level training to other therapists in Israel.”
The honorees were awarded certificates and pairs of Shabbat candlesticks hand-made by the special-needs residents of ADI Negev.
“On behalf of the administration at ADI Negev, we would like to thank you for your unwavering dedication to the people of Israel and to our injured IDF soldiers,” Kramer said.
Vogel said he felt compelled to do something after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. A 13-year member of the Rockaway Nassau Safety Patrol, a volunteer group that assists local police, Vogel said he felt an overwhelming need to do more.
He heard about the volunteer opportunity at ADI Negev through Israel’s Emergency Volunteers Program. “The cost of the licensing in Eretz Yisrael, the room and board, meals and even the taxi ride to and from the airport were covered,” Vogel said. “I immediately jumped at the chance, once I got my wife’s seal of approval. I had no idea what I was in for, but I was excited, and I couldn’t wait to hit the ground running.”
Vogel praised the design of ADI Negev, which is entirely disability-accessible. “It was truly designed to be a community center, where our brothers and sisters can be treated with dignity,” he said.
A highlight of last week’s event was a recounting of the story of Major Or Maatuk, of the IDF, and his rehabilitation at ADI Negev. For 12 years Maatuk was in charge of the Givati Brigade, a unit charged with combating terrorism in the Gaza strip.
Last November, he spent 66 consecutive hours fighting in Faraza, a kibbutz in southern Israel, battling terrorists and rescuing Israelis from safe rooms. “We eliminated more than 100 terrorists inside Faraza,” Maatuk said. “The terrorists were everywhere.”
Maatuk was critically injured in an explosion of a rocket-propelled grenade, when shrapnel penetrated the left side of his body. “I raised my upper left extremity to protect my face,” he recalled, “and hundreds of pieces of shrapnel fly right through me, wounding me severely in my left shoulder, abdominal area and chest.”
He was taken to Sheba Hospital in Ramat Gan, Israel, where he needed extensive surgery to survive. His spleen was removed, and his diaphragm and pancreas were repaired. After a month and a half at the hospital, Maatuk was transferred to ADI Negev, where he underwent eight months of intensive rehabilitation.
“I arrived in the Negev weak, with poor endurance, and I could barely walk,” he said. “My left arm could barely move, I had open wounds and lots of scar tissue which limited my range of motion.”
Maatuk received around-the-clock care, and devoted his days to getting stronger and improving his range of motion so he could return to the IDF.
“ADI Negev changed my life,” he said. “I was there for eight long months. It was extremely hard, physically and emotionally. They gave me my life back.”
Those who are interested in volunteering can contact the Emergency Volunteers Program, by visiting EXP.org.il/Contact.cgi.
