ZAKA
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ZAKA (Hebrew: זק"א, an abbreviation for Zihuy Korbanot Ason, literally: "Identifying Victims of Disaster"), is a voluntary community emergency response team in Israel, officially recognized by the government. Its full name is ZAKA - Identification and Rescue - True Kindness (Hebrew: זק"א - איתור חילוץ והצלה - חסד של אמת). The organization was founded in 1989 by Yehuda Meshi Zahav and Rabbi Moshe Aizenbach.
Members of ZAKA, most of whom are Orthodox Jews, assist ambulance crews, identify the victims of terrorism, road accidents and other disasters, and where necessary gather body parts and spilled blood for proper burial. They also provide first aid and rescue services, and help with the search for missing persons. ZAKA was involved in helping forensic teams in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, and Indonesia in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, where they were nicknamed "the team that sleeps with the dead" because of their willingness to work around the clock. [1]
The founders and members of ZAKA prefer to call the organization and their work Chesed shel Emet (חסד של אמת - "true kindness"), because they are dedicated to arranging the bodies of slain Jews to be buried according to Halakha, Jewish law. After acts of terrorism, ZAKA volunteers also collect the bodies and body parts of non-Jews, including suicide bombers, for return to their families. The phrase Chesed shel Emet refers to doing "kindness" for the benefit of the deceased, which is considered to be "true kindness", because no reward is expected.
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[edit] Early history
ZAKA started when a group of volunteers gathered to assist in the recovery of human remains from a terrorist attack on a Line 405 bus in Israel in 1989. In 1995 they were officially recognized by the Israeli government and now work closely with the Israeli police in the identification of disaster victims.
ZAKA activity expanded rapidly during the al-Aqsa Intifada (from September 2000), when frequent terrorist suicide bombings created many scenes of disaster, with the remains and body parts of many victims strewn around bombing sites.
[edit] Growing public recognition
The devotion of the members of ZAKA and the professional manner in which they handled difficult and tragic scenes, such as the treatment of the bodies of victims killed in suicide bombings, led to strong public respect and admiration. The great contribution of ZAKA to Israeli society was soon widely recognized.
This recognition enabled ZAKA to recruit more volunteers, and with growing monetary donations, purchase advanced equipment, such as first aid kits, ambulances, MIRS and motorcycles (for rapid response).
The increase in reputation, donations and manpower enabled ZAKA to participate in additional voluntary activities beyond disaster victim identification and supplying first aid. Such other activities include helping senior citizens and education initiatives to prevent road accidents.
One of the founders of ZAKA, Yehuda Meshi Zahav, was given the honor of lighting an honorary beacon on Israel's 55th Independence Day official ceremonies on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, the revered burial spot of modern Zionism's founder Theodor Herzl.
[edit] Recent history
In 2004, a group of ZAKA volunteers flew to The Hague, Netherlands, with the wreckage of a bus destroyed on January 29, 2004 in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem. The wreckage, along with pictures of 950 victims of Palestinian terrorism, was taken to Washington DC to urge the United States to act against Palestinian terrorism. [2]
In late 2004 and early 2005, members of ZAKA provided forensic services and other assistance in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Other forensic teams reportedly dubbed the group "the team that sleeps with the dead" because they toiled nearly 24 hours a day at Buddhist pagodas in Thailand that had been transformed into morgues to identify those who died in the tsunami. The experience of ZAKA members, who reportedly see 38 bodies a week on average in Israel, helped them identify corpses faster than many of the 20 or so other forensic teams that operated in Thailand in the aftermath of the disaster, which placed them in high demand with grieving families. [3]
At the beginning of July 2005, Beeper Corp, the company that supplies ZAKA with communication to its members, cut off service to ZAKA due to unpaid debts.
In February 2007, ZAKA sent a 10-person rescue team, consisting primarily of rescue divers, to Paris to search for a missing Israeli Defense official. The mission is being funded by the Defense Ministry at an expected cost of $80,000. [4]
March 9, 2007 Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, chairman of ZAKA and former operations officer for the Israeli Ultra-Orthodox community while in Poland at the grave site of Hassidic Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk/Lezajsk was so enraged by the presence of Moshe Aryeh Friedman of Neturei Karta (infamously kissed Iranian President Ahmadinejad at a Holocaust Denial Conference: International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust) at the grave site that he along with another ZAKA member located Friedman in the crowd and comenced to beat him until Police arrived. Yehuda Meshi Zahav, who has just returned from a memorial service at the Auschwitz concentration camp, spotted Friedman in a crowd and attacked him, breaking his glasses and removing his hat and coat. The reason for this was, according to Meshi Zahav, that this garb is unique to Orthodox Jews, a group from which Friedman has removed himself on account of his Holocaust denial. The Polish authorities asked Friedman to leave the area, encouraging him to board a train for Vienna.[1] Meshi-Zahav was later honoured by the gathered Jewish community in Lezajsk by being called to read from the Torah [5]
[edit] See also
- Bereavement in Judaism
- Burial
- Forensic
- Hevra Kaddisha
- Israeli Security Forces
- Magen David Adom
- Hatzolah
[edit] External links
- ZAKA Official Website English version
- Contact Zaka
- ZAKA at the Jewish Virtual Library
- ZAKA: Always there when terror strikes
- ZAKA: Kindness Amid Terror - An Interview with a volunteer
- Tsunami forensics team evokes Bible images, By Miranda Leitsinger, Associated Press Writer (reprint at boston.com)
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