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An injured man at a Toms River, New Jersey, traffic accident turned down help from a Hatzolah volunteer, telling him, “I don’t want your kind touching me,” according to a Facebook account by Booky Kaluszyner that Ynet reported on Sunday.
The volunteer, who serves with the Jewish emergency medical service, honored the request and contacted dispatch to ask for the township’s own crews.
Minutes later, two more volunteers arrived through the local 911 service. Both were Orthodox Jews. They identified themselves as emergency responders, but the patient again declined, repeating his line and adding, “I want the real 911.”
The pair waited for non-Orthodox personnel from the township’s emergency medical services. That crew examined him and called for paramedics, who were also Hasidic Jews. At the hospital, according to the account, an Orthodox Jewish woman was assigned as his nurse.
Kaluszyner said the episode showed how hatred can keep a patient from accepting urgent help from Orthodox Jewish neighbors. He emphasized that the volunteers interrupted their daily lives to assist someone without first asking about his religion.
The day after sharing his account, Kaluszyner addressed comments comparing Hatzolah with other emergency services. He explained that he wanted to show how hatred can blind people and lead them to refuse urgent medical help. He stressed that he had not intended to criticize Toms River’s emergency responders and thanked all the township’s emergency services for their work.
“When there’s a call for help, nobody cares who gets the credit,” he wrote. “The only thing that matters is getting that person the help they need.”
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