Magen David Adom
(MADA)
Magen David Adom (Red Star of David) is Israel's national emergency medical service.
In the everyday language of Israelis, it's often shortened to Magen David, and even that has become shorter over the years—Hebrew speakers now use an acronym that has become a word in its own right: Ma'Da.
In all Western and Asian countries, there's the "Red Cross," while in Muslim countries, there's the "Red Crescent."
israelis are an exception. They have a Red Star of David.
Why? Because Israel is a Jewish state that cannot use the icons of other religions, such as a cross or a crescent. It has its own icon, which has accompanied the Jewish people for hundreds of years: the Star of David.
And so, if you live in Israel, you will get the same emergency service as you would in any other country in the world, just with a different wrapping: through an organization with a name and symbol unique to our country.
Got into an accident? In a medical emergency? Did someone near you get injured or have a heart attack? Are you in your ninth month and your water has broken? Is the child choking on an apricot pit? Was the girl bitten by a snake?
You call Ma'Da.
You dial the short number 101, and the on-duty dispatcher answers you immediately. During the call, they'll dispatch an ambulance and also update the police, and if needed, the fire department. Until the ambulance arrives, they'll instruct you by phone on what to do to prevent the situation from worsening.
Ma'Da is at your service 24/7 in every corner of Israel.
This isn't an advertisement—it's part of the Israeli experience for 75 years, since the state was established, and for many years before that, during the period of the "Yishuv" under the British Mandate.
There isn't an Israeli who doesn't know the white ambulance with the red Magen David symbol. MaDa's ambulances race on Israel's roads with flashing lights on their roofs and sirens blaring a loud horn.
For anyone who encounters them, the situation is clear: a person's life is in danger, and every second is crucial for their rescue.
Cars on the road make way, and pedestrians move aside and wait before a crosswalk even if the light is green. When the road isn't clear and the situation is serious, the speeding ambulance will cross red lights, carefully, of course. And if there's no choice, it will even drive in the opposite lane or mount the sidewalk—anything to get to the hospital emergency room as fast as possible. That's the last stop on its journey. There it unloads a stretcher carrying a passenger whose life is in danger. The stretcher bearers will hand them over to the nurses and doctors in the hospital emergency room, and the ambulance will continue to the next call.
MaDa's rescue teams have seen it all—car and work accidents, natural disasters and mass casualty events, severe illnesses, and suicides. They, along with the ambulances and stretchers, are an inseparable part of the living and the dead, the injured and the surviving Israeli landscape.
In a country like ours, constantly filled with wars and terror attacks, Ma'Da has always had a particularly important role, and its people are seen again and again in war and terror attack images, rescuing under fire and racing to the hospital. But that's not all.
They've resuscitated drowning victims in the sea. They've provided life-saving initial treatment to those suffering from anxiety attacks, strokes, burns, fractures, and any other event of severe or mild medical distress. They've delivered babies who arrived early after a sudden breaking of water, and they've identified lives that came to a sudden end.
Magen David Adom is not just ambulances.
Ma'Da is thousands of volunteers—adults and youth—paramedics, medics, nurses, and doctors, drivers, and team members who sit in every ambulance and do professional and dedicated work.
Ma'Da maintains and manages the central blood bank in Israel, and its mobile units are sent to crowded places to collect blood from passersby and from volunteers who saw an announcement about the unit's arrival.
Ma'Da also has clinics for immediate emergency treatments that don't justify an urgent trip to the hospital; first aid courses; humanitarian aid teams for any disaster event around the world. In recent decades, Ma'Da has operated the "Wish Ambulance"—which arrives specifically to fulfill the requests of people dealing with severe or terminal illnesses and who have lost their mobility.
Ma'Da is 101.
And every Israeli carries a prayer in their heart that they will never need it.
But if they do, they'll know they have someone they can count on.
For more on Magen David Adom - click to read on Wikipedia
On the history of Magen David Adom - click to read the history book of MDA (in Hebrew)
This is part of "The Israeli Story 1948-2025" project.
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