Rescuers Without Borders Israel in Germany
Rescuers Without Borders Israel in GermanyCourtesy

Aryeh Levy, chairman of Rescuers Without Borders Israel, headed a delegation returning from Germany and Belgium to help locate missing people from the heavy floods that were there.

"Our organization was established with the blessing and instruction of the late Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu in 2000 during the years of the second intifada." Levy tells Arutz Sheva, "In 2004 there was the famous tsunami with tens of thousands of wounded and killed and when I entered the rabbi's office he told us to go out and take pictures so that the whole world would hear that we were doing it and we would make a good reflection on the State of Israel".

On dealing with the complicated arenas, he says, "I participated in most of the expeditions in my life that Third World countries had and in many of those places, honestly, there was no difference in the landscape between what happened before the disaster and what it looked like after the disaster. Here we saw green fields and amazing houses and a hundred meters later real destruction. Our team searched for missing people, ...but we also helped with basic things like organizing the 'missing persons' reports."

"In one case we were called to help a Syrian woman who who fell down the stairs and was injured. She did not speak English or German and one of our team members spoke Arabic. When the German staff arrived we were asked to accompany her to the hospital because they could not communicate with her. Her husband was in the market and said: "I am so happy that you came to save us, even though you are from Israel," Levy adds.

"Israelis are much more popular in the world than what is presented in the media. And that is our main message.... Every Israeli should be aware of this. Do not panic. There is love in the world and we are experts in the field of rescuing missing persons. Everywhere we went with the Israeli flag, and we were welcomed wtih open arms. The reception was amazing".