“I feel my blessing is being a doctor. I wanted to make sure that if somebody was ready to give their life for the State of Israel and got hurt, I would be able to help them,” Dr. Eugene Rapaport, a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist who made aliyah from California in June, told JNS.
Rapaport went to medical school at Tel Aviv University from 1989 to 1993. After his studies, he lived and practiced medicine in the United States for three decades.
“I have two older kids who both finished college—my eldest already lived in Israel, and I have a 12-year-old who immigrated with me. It required finances to be able to do this but it was time. Everything aligned,” he said during the Monday interview.
Rapaport’s eldest daughter researches Alzheimer’s disease in conjunction with Professor Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.
In November, Rapaport volunteered for two weeks at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem through Nefesh B’Nefesh’s wartime Physician Volunteer Initiative, during which he cared for approximately five patients per day.
“We were all pretty horrified by what occurred on Oct. 7, and we wanted to get involved,” he said. But making the trip wasn’t easy, given his work at three hospitals in America.
“At first, I considered donating money instead of coming physically, but people said being on the ground would be more helpful,” he explained.
“There were a few patients who I had the privilege of caring for at Hadassah. One of them was hit with an RPG [rocket-propelled grenade], and I gave him a nerve block to stop the pain in his arm. Even if it was just for that one individual, it was worthwhile and even more so being here permanently now.”
Having practiced at hospitals with trauma units in America, Rapaport was familiar with the type of injuries he encountered at Hadassah. What made for a different experience was the emotional connection he feels to the Jewish state and its people.
“When soldiers arrived via helicopter from Gaza, I prayed before I met them that no one was seriously injured,” he said.
“I scanned soldiers brought into the emergency room and was very happy to see that they were all conscious and talking. My prayers were answered. As a Jew, I was in awe at the team that evacuated the troops from the battlefield,” he continued.
Jewish principles
Rapaport invoked Jewish principles when noting he also treated an 8-year-old Gazan girl who had a congenital deformity.
“Her spine was bent and we made it straight. It’s a story most people around the world won’t hear,” he told JNS. “It shows how charitable Israel is because when you read the news you’d never believe something like this is even possible. There were a lot of phenomenal physicians who obviously did not make a distinction between somebody Jewish or not, and neither did I.”
He then pivoted to one of the last patients he had before leaving the United States.
“I had to perform surgery on someone who had a Nazi symbol on his chest. The cardiac surgeon was Jewish, the anesthesiologist was Jewish and we saved his life,” he said.
Beyond realizing a personal dream of living in Israel, Rapaport hopes to fill the same need as he did for years in the United States.
“Having a group that specializes in cardiac and thoracic anesthesia in Israel would be very beneficial for patients who have certain diseases and need to be stabilized before being operated on,” he said.
For Rapaport, coming to Israel has been a dream realized, even if he’s left some of the comforts behind.
“It’s a great feeling to be here. It might have been a crazy decision to make and only time will tell. But hopefully, I can help out, the doctors are excellent, and I hope to bring something unique in my subspecialization in medicine,” he said.
“It’s my driving force to be here, be part of the nation of Israel, be a good citizen and make a contribution to the country,” he added.
Dr. Rapaport made aliyah through Nefesh B’Nefesh, which works in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and JNF-USA, after attending a 2022 MedEx event in New Jersey.
Five years earlier, he started the process of transferring his medical license to Israel with the help of Nefesh B’Nefesh’s dedicated MedEx program, which assists medical professionals in making aliyah.
Recently, Nefesh B’Nefesh announced a multiyear initiative with the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration and the Ministry of Health to create an international program to streamline the immigration process for medical professionals, ensuring their ability to integrate 2,000 physicians over the next five years into Israel’s health system.
