Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Medical director of New York Hatzalah, 56, killed by car walking home after Shabbat

He was rushed to the hospital in cardiac arrest, but pronounced dead soon upon arriving.

An ambulance used by Hatzalah in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. Credit: Wikipedia.
An ambulance used by Hatzalah in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. Credit: Wikipedia.

The Hatzalah emergency-response organization and the Jewish community of New York were plunged into mourning after Shabbat on Saturday when the medical director of the life-saving group’s New York branch was killed after being hit by a car.

Dr. Richie (Tzvi Nochum) Friedman was walking home from his synagogue in Lawrence, N.Y., when he was hit by a motor vehicle while crossing a street. He was rushed to the hospital in cardiac arrest, but pronounced dead soon upon arriving.

Friedman, 56, was a prominent member of his community and the medical director of Hatzalah in New York City; Monsey, N.Y.; and the Catskill Mountains. He was one of the founding members of Hatzalah of the West Side more than 30 years ago, and also served as an East Side Hatzalah member prior to moving to Lawrence.

His funeral was scheduled for Sunday morning at the Bobover Beis Midrash in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., continuing on to Yeshivat Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway, N.Y

President Isaac Herzog was presented with an honorary degree by the Jewish Theological Seminary in Jerusalem.
The nations agreed on a coordination mechanism for citizen services following Jerusalem’s prolonged humanitarian assistance deployment to the country.
The diplomatic move joins a host of bilateral measures to immediately strengthen relations between Jerusalem and Bogotá.
The meeting “focused on strategies to strengthen Jewish safety and belonging, maintain candid lines of communication and collaborate on issues where we have shared values and goals,” Phylisa Wisdom, executive director of the Mayor’s office to Combat Antisemitism, told JNS.