Eli Beer

Eli Beer (born September 13, 1973 in Israel) is the Founder of United Hatzalah of Israel and President of U.S. based organization Friends of United Hatzalah. United Hatzalah of Israel is an independent, non-profit, fully volunteer emergency medical services organization that provides fast and free emergency medical first response throughout Israel.

On June 2, 1978, Beer witnessed the bombing of the #12 bus. He was struck by the chaos of the incident and the dearth of emergency rescue resources. This traumatic experience inspired him to volunteer on an ambulance at the age of 15, while attending school and working in his family’s book and real estate business.

At the age of 17 Beer realized that a more flexible system had to be established to improve emergency response times. Beer was familiar with the Hatzalah model established in the United States and began to organize a similar model by launching a volunteer unit in his Jerusalem neighborhood. This unit purchased their own communication gear, medical equipment and supplies and was funded by the community.

Beer began to work with Hatzalah Jerusalem in 1992. With Beer as fundraiser and operational coordinator the organization grew and changed its name to Hatzalah Israel reflecting its nationwide scope . Hatzalah Israel acted as an umbrella organization, incorporating many Hatzalah chapters that had been established throughout the country.

In 2006 citing a lack of transparency and administrative effectiveness in Hatzalah Israel, Eli Beer formally left the organization and established United Hatzalah of Israel. A core group of professionals quickly joined the new organization and were followed by Hatzalah chapters throughout the country. In 2008 the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profit organizations formally shut down Hatzalah Israel and all remaining operational assets were absorbed by United Hatzalah of Israel.

Today United Hatzalah of Israel has over 2000 EMT’s, paramedics and doctors volunteering 24/7/365 across the entire country.

During his voluntary career as an EMT, Beer has been a medical responder at the scenes of the Ben Yehuda Street bombings, the Versailles Wedding Hall disaster, the Second Lebanon War in the north, and Operation Cast Lead in the south.

Beer received the Social Entrepreneur Award from the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in cooperation with the World Economic Forum of Davos in 2010. The award is given to those driving social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health, environment and enterprise development.

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