Rabbi Ben-Tzion Kravitz of Los Angeles, who recently completed a three-week anti-missionary visit to Israel, reports on a ten-minute turn of events that led to the saving of a 14-year-old girl's life and the formation of a life-long friendship between two men.
Last Sunday, July 6, Kravitz was driving with his wife and son from Tzfat to Tel Aviv when they decided to take a rest stop just before Zikhron Yaakov. They pulled up to a small restaurant about 50 feet from the highway when they heard the sound of screeching tires and instinctively turned toward the highway to witness as a car traveling at high speed ran straight into a girl walking with her friends along the side of the highway. "I saw and heard the impact," Kravitz recounted, "and watched as the pedestrian was thrown into the air and did a complete somersault over the car, landing on the pavement head first."
Summoning up all the experience he amassed in ten years as a Los Angeles Police Chaplain, and using his training in First Aid, CPR, Crisis Counseling and advanced Critical Incident Stress Management, he ran over to the scene of the accident and saw the victim lying motionless on her side with blood pouring from the back of her head and mouth. At the same time, retired IDF paratrooper officer Danny Eitan, who had been driving in the opposite direction when he witnessed the accident. When they found that the girl was not breathing and had no pulse, they began artificial respiration: Danny opened the airway and handled the breathing, and Kravitz starting chest compressions. The girl - named Hadas - was soon revived, and a doctor who later arrived on the scene took over from there until she was taken, in critical condition, to a hospital in Hadera - and later to a Tel Aviv trauma center for her head injuries. After four days of treatment, she was listed as out of danger, and is expected to make a full recovery.
Kravitz, founder of Jews for Judaism International, recounted that after the ambulance left, Danny and he turned to each other and found out that neither had planned to be in that location at that time. "I shared with Danny the words of the Baal Shem Tov concerning divine providence," Kravitz recounted, "and how 'the footsteps of men are established by G-d.' As we embraced in the middle of the road, we cried knowing that G-d had directed us to this spot to save a young life. I helped Danny put on Tefillin in the merit of Hadas' complete and speedy recovery, and we pledged a bond of brotherly friendship for the rest of our lives."
Last Sunday, July 6, Kravitz was driving with his wife and son from Tzfat to Tel Aviv when they decided to take a rest stop just before Zikhron Yaakov. They pulled up to a small restaurant about 50 feet from the highway when they heard the sound of screeching tires and instinctively turned toward the highway to witness as a car traveling at high speed ran straight into a girl walking with her friends along the side of the highway. "I saw and heard the impact," Kravitz recounted, "and watched as the pedestrian was thrown into the air and did a complete somersault over the car, landing on the pavement head first."
Summoning up all the experience he amassed in ten years as a Los Angeles Police Chaplain, and using his training in First Aid, CPR, Crisis Counseling and advanced Critical Incident Stress Management, he ran over to the scene of the accident and saw the victim lying motionless on her side with blood pouring from the back of her head and mouth. At the same time, retired IDF paratrooper officer Danny Eitan, who had been driving in the opposite direction when he witnessed the accident. When they found that the girl was not breathing and had no pulse, they began artificial respiration: Danny opened the airway and handled the breathing, and Kravitz starting chest compressions. The girl - named Hadas - was soon revived, and a doctor who later arrived on the scene took over from there until she was taken, in critical condition, to a hospital in Hadera - and later to a Tel Aviv trauma center for her head injuries. After four days of treatment, she was listed as out of danger, and is expected to make a full recovery.
Kravitz, founder of Jews for Judaism International, recounted that after the ambulance left, Danny and he turned to each other and found out that neither had planned to be in that location at that time. "I shared with Danny the words of the Baal Shem Tov concerning divine providence," Kravitz recounted, "and how 'the footsteps of men are established by G-d.' As we embraced in the middle of the road, we cried knowing that G-d had directed us to this spot to save a young life. I helped Danny put on Tefillin in the merit of Hadas' complete and speedy recovery, and we pledged a bond of brotherly friendship for the rest of our lives."