Episode 109: Modi and Periel are joined by Eli Beer of United Hatzalah and discuss the ongoing operations in Israel.
Modi's special "Know Your Audience" is available on YouTube now!
For all upcoming shows visit www.modilive.com.
Follow Modi on Instagram at @modi_live.
Episode 109: Modi and Periel are joined by Eli Beer of United Hatzalah and discuss the ongoing operations in Israel.
Modi's special "Know Your Audience" is available on YouTube now!
For all upcoming shows visit www.modilive.com.
Follow Modi on Instagram at @modi_live.
Welcome to and here's Modi. And welcome to back here at and here's Modi. We have a guest in the audience today. Wow, what a schut, what an honor, what an absolute privilege it is to have Elie Bier. Elie Bier, president of United Hatzalah. I could do the intro. I don't need you for this.
Speaker 2:Go ahead, take a stab at it.
Speaker 1:He started United Hatzalah. And how do I describe to our listeners who don't know? Because we now have listeners who aren't Jewish and we have Ellie, we have Goyim, gaze and Vaze. They're all listening. That's good, huh, that's good, isn't that good? And if they don't know who Eli Beer and United Hatzalah is, it is literally Moshiach energy.
Speaker 1:It is a volunteer ambulance corps in Israel made up of Jews, christians, israel, made up of Jews, christians, muslims, druze, whatever else. The chulent of Israel has that volunteer and they are mobilized in. You know, israel's not like New York or Texas, where you in ambulances and in mopeds and in water jet skis and whatever way to get to somebody in need. Elie Bier has raised money to make that vehicle happen. Whatever they need People.
Speaker 1:You can't even describe what United Hud Salah is. I'll tell you a personal story. My cousin, mirko, was in an accident and she was on the side of the road, not in a dangerous area, just a regular car accident, not a terrorist attack. She just looked around and she was more in shock, not from the accident, from how fast the area was surrounded by mopeds and motorcycles and ambulances of United Hatzalah. They got there. She lives in Ramat Hasharon and she was like on the junction there just to get off the highway and she said it was unbelievable. That's United Hatzalah. Elie Bier is the front man, the creator, obviously, and the guy, and you describe yourself as a snorer, which I absolutely hate because it's so not what you are Super snorer, super snorer.
Speaker 1:No, it's chas v'shalom, it's, it's. I had to describe what a snore is to to, to leo, my, to, my, my, my. When I took my husband to to a jewish event where you know, outside people are asking for money, just just like they, literally they even ask you just go and they just like, have wads of cash in their hands and they want you to give them more, like when we went to the grave in Kerestir. Yeah, and that's a shnor. You are literally providing people a way to create Moshiach energy and he goes all day long. Besides being an EMT and a medic, a paramedic, all the things you are, you are also in charge of making sure there's money. You need cash. You need cash to make United Hatzalah happen.
Speaker 2:So it's all donation-based. But you just said something really beautiful before we started taping and you said we were talking about getting donors and what did you say?
Speaker 3:We were talking about. You asked me if I meet us millionaires.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Do you meet only?
Speaker 1:billionaires or also millionaires, and I said I bet it's people who aren't billionaires that give the most money.
Speaker 3:Well, I think the biggest donors of United Atzala our volunteers who are saving lives and leaving their jobs Some of them could hardly make meat's end and they take off work to go save people. I have a volunteer, ophir, who drives a garbage truck in Givadzev, and in his garbage truck he has a defibrillator and he has equipment and when something happens with the garbage truck he goes to save lives and he does this all day, three or four calls a day. He saves lives of babies, of women giving birth. Can you imagine? A woman's on the way to the hospital, she gets stuck in traffic and the baby's coming out and she feels like she's dying, like this is the middle of the street and a garbage truck shows up with a fear, jumps out with a Hatzalah jacket and saves the little baby and her. These are the biggest donors of Hatzalah.
Speaker 1:I can't explain to you. First of all, when I was in Israel two tours ago, okay, you know.
Speaker 3:Ellie, I don't know if people know that you're one of the biggest celebrities in Israel. Me, yeah, not everyone, no matter if they speak Hebrew and English. They know who you are, they love your shows and you are sold out immediately in Israel. You know that.
Speaker 1:So you know that this podcast is called and here's Modi because I'm so used to following speeches like yours. I'm so used to following speeches like yours. Whenever I do an event for Hatzalah, elie Bier comes on and he will hit you with things that no one in the audience can handle. He gets right where that point is and crosses it. We were at the Republican Jewish Coalition two weeks after the attack. Elie gets up there in between Trump and Johnson, whoever that, whoever and he literally goes. We went into the nurseries of the kibbutzim and we did not know what head went with which body of the baby. Beat and here's Modi. That's literally why this podcast is called and here's Modi. So I follow Elie Beer, but I did two shows for United Hatzalah in Israel, like a year or two, two years ago, and I said to all the people in the audience I go, ladies and gentlemen, tonight you have to donate even more Because we are lucky enough, elie's not here.
Speaker 1:His wife started laughing. His wife's front row started cracking up. There's no Ellie Beer speech tonight. You have to, really you have to get. You really know how to get into their hearts. The work you do is is Moshiach energy. It is, it's insane.
Speaker 2:So can I back up a second? When did Hatzalah start? How did you start it and why did you start it? I'm assuming that there's an ambulance service maybe I'm wrong in Israel, the way that there is in the States.
Speaker 3:Well, I started in Israel. Hatzalah here started by other people Hershel Weber and other great people who started here before United Hatzalah. So I started when I was 16 years old in Yerushalayim. I used to sit at the back of an ambulance to volunteer and I was always pushed towards a medicine. I always wanted to be a doctor. That's what always interests me. I was a terrible student. I learned in Cheder and Yeshiva Thrown out of school every day so I knew a doctor. I'm not going to be A patient. I could. But I actually volunteered in the back of an ambulance and I used to see motorcycles passing us to deliver pizza and burgers and I said to myself we're stuck in traffic to save someone who's not breathing and if that pizza guy is going to get to his destination, the pizza is going to be hot. When we get to our destination, the patient's going to be cold and nothing makes sense. I said we need to change things around. I told my friends if I have a choke, don't call for an ambulance, call for a pizza.
Speaker 2:These guys are coming fast.
Speaker 1:It's so true, by the way. So we have that in common too. These guys are coming fast, it's so true, by the way. So we have that in common too. I got my ENT license when I was 17 years old in the five towns. I loved it, I worked. My mom did let me work on an ambulance. She said you're not flying through the streets in an ambulance. But I worked in the ER. And then, throughout college, I worked at Cornell, on cornell, on uh 66, 68th street. I was, uh, an ent, I was a emergency room technician, and then I worked in the surgical unit too. Um, I just I could never go to medical school. I, I couldn't do the. I can't read. I, I literally can't read. I literally can't read. I mean, and that chemistry, read, I mean, and that chemistry, oh my God, if it wasn't for the Asian kids next to me, I would have failed all those classes. So it was just. That was what it was. But yeah, there's just something I graduated from Haider.
Speaker 3:when I was 12 years old, I finished school.
Speaker 1:That was it.
Speaker 3:That was it. I went to work and then, when I was 15, I went to volunteer in an ambulance and I loved it. It was the greatest feeling in the world to help people.
Speaker 3:but I realized we don't save people. We're actually in the back of an ambulance helping people, but if someone calls for help for choking, it takes us 17, 18 minutes to get there. That person's dead. And we used to say, oh, we should call Hever Kedisha like the burial society, because they're going to get there and do better help than we do. And that's where the idea to get my friends to start a group of volunteers that we will arrive to scenes in 90 seconds that's the whole idea of United Sala 90 seconds Wow.
Speaker 1:So we had on the podcast before and this is insane that I'm doing this comparison right now and this is pushing it. So when I did the shows for hutsala. First of all, I'll tell you one thing that was hysterical we died. The show was supposed to be in ranana and the theater got shut down because of some fire code. But they called us and we're at the pool. At 2 30 we're sitting at the pool in uh kapinski and hey mori. The theater is closed down. We have to move everything to kvassaba. Leo, of course, is ready to just explode his head this is currently could just pop his head right off. They did it. You forget that this is a volunteer ambulance service. They pulled it together in seconds. The show went on in Kfar Saba as if nothing happened. But I got to work with the volunteers. You get, they become the production managers, they become backstage hands, they become everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They all have this little phone on them. I can't tell you how this technology is so amazing. The only way I can compare it when an accident happens, it's lahavdil. It's like Grindr. You've no idea what Grindr is, do you? It's the gay dating site where you can just log in and see whatever gay is in the area.
Speaker 2:But it's like location-based.
Speaker 1:So, literally, while the guy's telling me how do you want the monitors on the stage, he's getting a beep and he says to me is somebody having a heart attack? Oh, three guys are on their way, that's it. It's literally. The Hatzalah app that the volunteers have is like the grinder of paramedics. Is that too much? Is that crazy?
Speaker 2:Wait that's Now. You have a new tagline.
Speaker 1:Is it oh?
Speaker 2:my God, you have a lot more volunteers join us now what we may now have a lot more volunteers.
Speaker 3:join us now.
Speaker 1:Probably, that's so funny.
Speaker 3:You know I once laughed because they had a funny video going out about finding a meal for Shiva. You know, like people hungry, you go to a Jewish Shiva wrap to find the closest Shiva you can have a meal because they all serve food there. It's like a funny joke about the Jews always serving food in shiva so you can always eat Like it was always. Now it's a new. I didn't know about the grinder thing.
Speaker 2:Now you know, you come here, you learn something.
Speaker 1:So while the guy's helping me set the monitors up on stage, his phone rings or whatever that device you guys have, and he's looking at it and he says to me somebody's having a cardiac event on the whole Allenby and whatever, and he and then he sees that three people are on their way much closer than he is.
Speaker 2:It's an amazing technology 90 seconds or less Exactly Unbelievable.
Speaker 3:And I'll tell you something the technology we developed over the years. We started before iPhone exists, so we put lots of our resources the money we raised goes a lot of it to advance the response. By having better technology, we could know within two seconds where the patient is. So, for instance, if someone calls us in the highway and he says I am in an accident, my children are in the car, I need help, where are you? I don't know where I am, don't worry about it, we'll know where you are, we sent him a link and within two seconds, not only we see where they are, the exact location, we see what's going on around them, because their phone or the person calling us opens up the camera so he could see the situation and tell this person okay, go to your kids, do this and this. You know, stop the bleeding here and do this. So we turn the people actually to Hatzala volunteers on the spot and then, the same exact time, the volunteers get the call. Zero bureaucracy, we don't like you call sometimes 911 for 10 minutes.
Speaker 3:Oh, so what does she take for medicine? What is she allergic to? Who cares? She's choking. Now, what do you ask me about allergic reactions? This is like this is. This is hot stuff. It's so Jewish.
Speaker 1:It's so true, right.
Speaker 3:We actually broke old bureaucracy and United Atella was built with chutzpah, and this is what I'm very proud of. Israel invented chutzpah, which is the greatest innovation ever. We don't take no as an answer, and you know that that's why we had the show two minutes after in another place and we said no bureaucracy, no, nothing. When we were starting, the ambulance service of Israel said we're not going to share calls with you. We're not allowed to share calls If you're not wearing our uniform, if you're not in our ambulances. We said but we are local, we want to save lives until you guys show up. And he said no way, we're not going to do that. I said okay, don't worry, I'll manage on my own. And I told this guy, the head of the union of the ambulance services. He says he started laughing. How are you going to get the calls? I said don't worry. I said I have some money left over from my work and my bar mitzvah.
Speaker 3:I came to America. The greatest store every child liked you probably did too was called Radio Shack. Oh, yes, I went into Radio Shack in Brooklyn. I bought a bunch of these walkie-talkie scanners and I broke it into pieces so they don't catch me in customs in Israel. I brought him back to Israel. I was 16 years old. I opened an underground national center that we could hear the ambulances dispatching their ambulances. They didn't know we're listening in and that's how we started.
Speaker 1:When a car accident does happen and Hatzalah and Magan Davida don't both show up, what's the protocol.
Speaker 3:We work together beautifully. I mean, our job is really to fill in the gap between the emergency happening until they show up. Okay, so if we show up and they show up, we work together and we usually give the patients to Magen, david Adom, to transport. We work with them hand in hand and together with every ambulance service in Israel. 100 ambulance services in Israel more than 100 are working today. We work with everyone. We're not there to replace their ambulance services. Our job is to come and be the first ones on the scene, not only to save their lives, but actually prevent brain damage.
Speaker 1:You know, I had dinner with Gilad Yordan, the UN representative, and when we had dinner your name came up somehow and one of the proudest things he said was that he helped you become I don't want to say legitimate, but helped your organization.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, gilad Yordan is amazing, by the way. I never expected him to be such a great UN ambassador, because he was a great Knesset member and a minister. He was a cabinet member, yeah, but I didn't know he had such good English. I heard him speak just yesterday. He speaks great, unbelievable.
Speaker 3:And Gilad Ardan understood the value of Hatzalah. And when Magandhi Vrathoma, of course they were the national ones, they the Valley of Hatzalah. And when Magan David Adom, of course they were the national ones, they were the monopoly, they were really the monopoly. They said to him no way, don't allow them to be an official organization in Israel. He said I don't care, these are the guys who are going to change Israel. And he was the first one to recognize United Hatzalah as a national registered official EMS organization in Israel, the second one in Israel and the only second one. And so what happened was October 7th. I give a lot of credit to Gilad Ardan because if it wasn't for United Hazala, hundreds of people wouldn't have been alive, in addition to the ones who died. So Gilad Ardan has in my heart a very special spot and I'm happy to say that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was proud because one of his like accomplishments, like is that he helped out. Um, what the, the, the, I mean the stories you have are un, unimaginable, never mind unbelievable even before October 7th, and um, and currently, and the state of the heightness of what could be happening. This podcast is recorded three days after Iran's 4th of July event, where the Iron Domes protected us and Ellie actually brought an Iron Dome. Those of you who are watching this, this is the top of an Iron Dome. This is what's saving Israeli, jordanian, syrian lives when things are fired from Iran. And how did you get that here?
Speaker 3:How did you get that through customs? So, first of all, you know me. Nothing could stop me, right. So it fell right next to us October 7th. It actually saved. This is 10 times longer, right, but this is the tip of the Iron Dome. This is half the tip. It opens up and blows up the bad missile. This is a good missile. Okay, this is a $50,000 missile that blows up a $200 missile. Wow, it's unbelievable what Israel spends. You should just know, and I'm sure you read protecting Israel three days ago from Iran cost $1 billion, but thank God no one got killed. Think about it. Iran planned this for years to attack Israel one day with the greatest missiles they built. I guess they're better in food than missiles, so they should focus on Iranian food, like Persian food is very good. Stick to the food, because I don't think they're good in their missiles.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 3:And maybe they are good, but we were able to thank God, hashem, mashiach, mashiach energy. Of course we were able to, but we were worried. And these missiles, iron Dome that was created in Israel thanks to Hashem and the American government sponsoring it, saves people's lives every day. And I see that and I picked one up after October 7. I said I'm going to take one to America to show people what this is. This is just a tip. So when I went into El Al of course you know they gave me a little problems I said come on, I need it for fundraising.
Speaker 1:But they know who you are, el Al, it's not like you said, you're El Ebir. I said to them, but I raising, okay, take it, that's amazing, um, so, okay, obviously, um, the stories that you told, uh, during october, uh, seventh, what happened were were unbelievable. And the height of the awareness that the the I'm not saying it well the the you are always on, uh, super alert, like you're always on a super alert, like you're ready for the next heightened alert, right, you're like it could happen any second All the ding, ding, dings, all the phones, all the machines will go off. And then how does that I mean, how does that feel? Well, I, every day, you seem calm.
Speaker 2:I know, I was just thinking that Ellie.
Speaker 1:I've never seen Ellie get excited. I've never seen Ellie get excited.
Speaker 2:Like what are you so relaxed about?
Speaker 1:I would be freaking.
Speaker 3:No, I tell you, I'm so involved in what I do and I realize that being not calm doesn't help.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:So I could be in a worse situation. Think about it Mehron tragedy was one of the worst tragedies that found United Hatala ever.
Speaker 2:The what tragedy.
Speaker 3:The Mehron, the big Mehron tragedy up north in Israel During Lago Bo'ome.
Speaker 1:Lago Bo'ome when they had the accident and everybody went to the grave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai and there was the infrastructure of the bleach, the, the bleachers no, it was actually people, just it was a mob.
Speaker 3:it was a mob that they had an accident, someone slipped and then one guy above each other, 45 people died and more in like literally 25 seconds they were gone and we were there, our volunteers were there, almost killed, and we were treating and saving lives and doing CPR on people 400 people injured. And I was calm. I don't know why, but I was able to tell our forces how to do and what to do. And the helicopters the whole idea of bringing helicopters there and getting people out of there, because the jam, the traffic jam, and I realized Hashem really gave me some kind of a. You know, you got the good looks, I got the calmness and I actually the fact that I was able to manage like really leadership of thousands of people under relaxation not, I never get angry, or no.
Speaker 2:How many volunteers in Israel are there for Hatzalah? 7,000 now 7,000 and it's not enough and so and well, after you recruit everybody from Grindr, you'll probably have more um, how many are you like managing at at any one crisis? What happens on October 7th? I imagine that you guys were immediately.
Speaker 3:October 7th. It caught me at 6.45 in the morning. When I woke up and I got phone calls, I thought in the beginning they told us it was a cyber attack on United Hot Cell. That's what they thought, because we got dozens of people calling and then hundreds of people calling and they couldn't even answer the phones. It was too many phone calls. They thought maybe it was just some kind of a cyber attack on our system. I usually have two or three phone calls waiting and within two, three seconds, four seconds they answer the phone. If I see a call is not answered in 10 seconds, this is really not Hatzela. Hatzela is answering the phone immediately. 555 phone calls waiting. Wow, they thought it was a cyber attack and the missiles and everything. No one imagined that. What's going on?
Speaker 3:So when I jumped into my car it was like early, early in the morning. I was heading towards the headquarters of United, tel Aviv. Shabbat morning. My wife said Gitti said I'm going down south because she knew missiles. I said Gitti, this is dangerous. I said he may have a few terrorists coming to Israel, a few meaning two, three. And she said I'm taking my gun with me, I'm wearing my bulletproof vest, I'm going in. And then my daughter hears that. My daughter, vigal, she's like I'm still a cowboy I don't call a cowgirl, she's like I'm taking my gun, I'm going down, I'm like she's still a hot seller. And my son-in-law and I said who's going to watch the baby? They have two babies, kids, I have four grandchildren and they all ran to their cars to go to Shteyrot.
Speaker 3:I went to United Settlers Command Center and we see what's going on. I realize we can't answer all these phone calls. I said they have a shul next door, a chassidim. They wake up early, get them from the shul to come help us answer the phones, even if they don't know what to do, because these are real emergencies, these are not cyber attacks, right, and a bunch of Hasidim came to help us with the Talas. Really Wow. I thought it was Yom Kippur War again. Wow. And I was like such a feeling like these guys came from Shul next door and they wrote down because they didn't know how to use the computers, but they were on Shabbat writing down and they were saying they have a woman coming out of a house, going to the terrace, and she said that her address is so-and-so in a kibbutz. She hid her son in the washing machine. Oh my God, like things like that People are hiding their kids.
Speaker 1:The Hasidim from the shtibel next door came to the Hatzalah headquarters to help out. Wow came to the Hadassah headquarters to help out. Wow, moshiach energy.
Speaker 3:That was unbelievable. Like I was like these people. They never touched a pen in their life on Shabbat, never drove a car, never answered a call, but they knew if something's wrong they need help. Wow. And they came helping us. And then we got our dispatchers to come immediately, just to have a bunch of these dispatchers answering phone calls and hearing the story.
Speaker 3:A nine-year-old boy calling from a closet, hiding with his sister. She's five years old. They just saw their parents murdered in Kfar Aza and they're hiding in a closet. And the boy he's nine, he seems he matured and he felt, we felt like he's like 25. And he says calmly my sister, avigael, three years old, was also murdered and we saw the terrorists in the house and they're outside of the house now, but they're in and out. What do we do? And they tried calling the ambulance. They couldn't help them. Police couldn't help them. They call Hatzalah. What do we do? We can't get into Kfar Aza. But this is the geniuses of these volunteers of Hatzalah. They are unbelievable. This guy says don't worry, we're going to help you.
Speaker 3:And he calls one of our psychotrauma volunteers, a psychologist specialist in children. Her name is Tamar and he calls her up. She's up north, next to Tzfat, and he says Tamar, what are you doing? She's in a kibbutz. She says I'm milking my goats. He says well, you know they have a war down south. She says no, he told her. I have two kids hiding in a closet. Terrorists are in their house. Could you help them? She took the phone, stopped doing everything she did, started treating the kids on the phone psychologist and if it wasn't for her, these kids would have been dead. They would have given up and gone out to the Hamas when they call. She was on the phone with them for 12 hours straight and she went through them. She was crying with them, she was laughing with them, she was joking with them. She brought them back to reality. She made him go out to the kitchen to get another battery for the phone because the phone was down and he had to go through. His parents were dead and she told him take a blanket and cover your parents to give them respect. And this little boy, nine years old, says where am I going to live now? She says what are you kidding? You're going to be the hero of Israel. You're the Gabor of Israel. Everyone's going to want to adopt you. You're going to be the most wanted adopted kid in Israel. Oh my god. And this is what we did.
Speaker 3:October 7th, united Atzala we had volunteers not only on the scene. Tamar saved these two little kids and Avigal was kidnapped, not killed. The terrorists kidnapped Avigal and 52 days later she was released in the field and now they're all three of them adopted by their aunt and uncle. But that's one thing. We had a volunteer, our Arab volunteer of United Sela, awad. Awad was the first volunteer of United Sela who ran to save people in the Nova Festival and there were like dozens of injured people and he went over to one of the young girls who were injured and he started treating her and the terrorists came and everyone was running away and the other volunteers said Tivrach, tivrach, hide. And he said no, no, I'm not leaving her alone, I'm not leaving her alone, I'll protect her. And with his own body he tried protecting her, talking Arabic to the terrorists and he said I'm an Arab, they didn't care. They shot him 25 times. Then they killed her and Awad was killed.
Speaker 3:And Awad was one of our volunteers. He was an incredible human being. He was from Nazareth, Nazareth. His dream was always to be a doctor and he couldn't make it, but he became a United Hatzalah volunteer, a proud one, and in the Leviah, in the funeral, they had hundreds and hundreds of motorcycles of Hatzalah giving him respect funeral they had hundreds and hundreds of motorcycles of Hatzalah giving him respect. And one of the Jewish volunteers, an Orthodox Jew, went over to the grave when they buried him and he said Kaddish over him and this is a type of organization I'm so proud of. We have the Jews and Arabs and Christians all working together and even during the worst times of our lives, like October 7th, we still have hope because we have ourselves. We see the people next to us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's unbelievable. And on top of that, you know you also. Before the podcast began, you shared a video with us of an Israeli unit that was in Gaza fighting, uh, the Hamas across the street and they were shooting each other and then they blew up the section of the building where they were fighting and civilians that were in the building where the terrorist war came out and they went to the, to the soldiers, and the soldiers were taking care of them and bandage them and help them and give them water.
Speaker 1:And and one of the soldiers had on his arm the unit he was with and underneath that, uh, the mashiach emblem and it was just like the it's just I don't know there's uh, it was a basher, it was a basher, there's a it's, it's just mashiach energy, it's chilling, it's just um, I mean and these are just a few stories- yeah, yeah, day and yeah. Day and night in Israel, with what goes on. Well, I have a book.
Speaker 3:I gave you. Well, that's right. I know you told me you don't read so well, but this is easy to read.
Speaker 1:We read out loud to him the font is good and there's lots of pictures.
Speaker 3:So I'm in, I'm in.
Speaker 1:I mean, I put it, it has even a kudot. Kudot, does it okay? The the uh 90 seconds. The epic story of ellie beer and united had salah rabbi nachum seltzer. Who's that? The guy who wrote?
Speaker 3:it. He wrote it, it's art scroll, actually the bestseller of art scroll and I never thought I'll ever write a book. You know, I could hardly read a book and I he wrote the book about my life and about united Hatzalah and it's just an incredible testimony that I was thrown out of every school, never did well in education, but I wanted to save one life. That was my dream being a little kid. When I was six years old, I was in Jerusalem. I saw a bus blow up in front of my eyes.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And it was in Baid Vagan, next to Yad Vashem, right next to Yad Vashem, right next to Yad Vashem. That's where I grew up. The first bus that ever blew up in Israel it was a PLO explosion and that's what led me towards what I'm doing today. I always said I want to save people's lives and when I went to Yad Vashem all the time, because it was my next door, I grew up there and where else could I go? I mean, they had a movie theater. My parents didn't let me go Too religious and I had to go to Yad Vashem to see movies. And that was the movies I saw and I said if Hitler was able to kill so many people, one person killed millions and millions of people, six million Jews. I always said to my parents my friends, one day I'm going to save 6 million Jews. If he was able to kill, I'm going to be able to save. And it's not me, it's thousands of volunteers. And since we started we didn't get to save 6 million yet, but we got to treat 6.5 million people.
Speaker 2:Wow, yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you donate a lot of people to do something big.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Good or bad. Look, it took only a few people for 9-11. It took 11 terrorists to do 9-11. It took Hitler to do 6 million and it takes Elie Bier to create something that's as amazing as United Hutzala.
Speaker 3:And a person you know like a person really has to decide in his life, in her life, what's their destiny in life, what do they want to do? They have three chances, three like choices. You could be a bad person, join a bad, like a bad gang, right and just do bad things robbing, shooting. Or join the most of the world, world, do nothing, don't care. You see someone injured in the street, just pass by. You see someone need money, pass by. Or join the good people, the people who care and do good, and I'm proud I'm part of them. And every time I join one volunteer I feel proud. Another person joining our club, the good club. You know the people who care.
Speaker 1:The big problem is, you know, we've had on the podcast, especially now this past few podcasts people who join an organization think that they're doing well and they're really not. We had somebody on who was an extreme Muslim, who now is pro-Israel and even though he's still a Muslim he's pro-Israel and he understood that the way he was brought up to understand what jihad is and all of that was wrong. So he went in there thinking we have to kill Jews, thinking that was a good thing. We have to kill Jews, thinking that was a good thing, you know. And then we had somebody on the podcast recently that just said that even though he's Arab, he's a Christian Arab that's living in Haifa. He is an Israeli. He's going to schools and campuses where the kids are telling him that the Arabs in Haifa are segregated, they can't go to the same movie theaters, they can't take buses. The kids in the colleges are telling him.
Speaker 2:White kids who have never been to Israel are telling him what Haifa, where he lives as a gay.
Speaker 3:Look, people who do bad always look for excuses to show they're not doing it Right, like these evil Hamas people. I'm sure they have a million justifications for what they're doing Right. God told us Muhammad gave us in his will to kill the Jews and many other reasons, so they think they're doing good. We know that they're doing very, very bad and I think it's really looking when most of the people, when they pass in the street, they see someone injured in an accident and they could help. They justify the fact that they don't help. They say, well, I'm in a rush, I have a job and I can't lose my job and I have children. And what about myself? What about that?
Speaker 3:People find excuses for all their bad things they do and we should always find excuses, like this guy that you said was a bad person. He was doing bad and educated to hate Jews. There is no justification to hate anyone. I, as a Jew, I never grew up hating anyone, not a Muslim, not a Christian. My father and mother never told me Ellie, when you grow up, you should know you have to hate black people. We never grew up like that and this is if someone teaches you, if your children grow up, learning how to hate. You know you're growing up in the wrong environment. Do not grow up anywhere hating no who?
Speaker 2:I never hated anyone yeah you know, when you have kids, you say always look for the helpers, right. Like if something bad is happening, or like you feel like you know you lost your parents somewhere, you get lost, like you always look for the helpers. I think it's like a Mr Rogers thing, but it's an incredible thing to be a helper, right?
Speaker 1:So if somebody else is looking for a helper, then you have to be the helper Innately in Jewish text. Innately, it says that the neshama is built for helping. Well, you always say that.
Speaker 2:You say that the first thing that you're supposed to do when a Jew meets another Jew is to ask how can I help?
Speaker 1:somebody else. I opened up your book and it was just it's just so funny that I opened up and the first it opened up to here like this a lesson from the Rebbe, from the Rebbe which he always said you this a lesson from the Rebbe. From the Rebbe which he always said you know, help somebody else and bracha beslacha will come to you, blessings and success will come to you. That was what that dollar was, you know, and he gave you a dollar to do good.
Speaker 3:Yes, to help somebody. To help somebody. And I remember I seen this story about the Rebbe when he passed away this black, he was older. He said a black man that lived in. He lived in what's it? Crown Heights, crown Heights. And he said when he was a little kid he was fighting with his friends. They had a whole big fight, him and his friends. They were just fighting fist, fighting the Rebbe. They didn't know who it was. And a Jewish guy comes by and he says kids, you should not fight, you should find ways how to play with each other. And he'd give each one a dollar. These are black kids in the neighborhood and he never forgot it, like that little act. And he said do something good with a dollar, right, and that's the beauty of this.
Speaker 3:And I always said I give people opportunities when I join in an Arab volunteer who's not like me. I grew up Jewish, I am Jewish and I bring someone not like me. I feel so proud. This is a Jewish thing. And I can tell you one thing we helped millions of people who are not Jewish.
Speaker 3:We went to Ukraine and in Ukraine we were helping a lot of people run away from the war in Russia and Ukraine during the Ukraine war, and we helped a lot of people run away from the war in Russia and Ukraine during the Ukraine war, and we helped a lot of people. And someone said to me Eli, why are you helping these people? They're not Jewish. And I said I'm not helping them because they're Jewish. I'm helping them because I am Jewish. Wow, and I think this is our motto. Like Mashiach time, like you always say, this is tikkun olam, this is really v'hafta l'recha kamocha. If you would be laying there on the street and you need help, you would like someone else to help you. Right? That's what you should do to others. Don't expect others to do to you if you don't do that for others. This is the essence of the Torah, and I'm doing this because I really believe that if we get more and more and more people to do good and not only join Hatzalah, but do anything, so many great things.
Speaker 1:Say it blatantly Listen when you the energy. It's energy, you're helping, it's a helping energy. You need energy to make that happen and money is energy. Money is energy and Hatzalah needs money it needs. And you're giving up people who are sitting in Manhattan today in board meetings where you're going to meet with them and tell them help us, help others.
Speaker 3:By the way, I'll never forget a story talking about money, because I raised a couple of dollars in shekels in my lifetime, but I had Modi in LA and we had a great time in LA in that beautiful building, the 10,000.
Speaker 3:And this guy that I tried to get to for years, for years. Sometimes people don't want to see me. They're like LA Beer, keep him away, block. And I'm trying to get to this guy and all of a sudden he shows up for Modi, modi. They come Me, they don't come and they probably thought I'm not going to be there. That's why he came. This guy comes.
Speaker 3:I never saw him face to face and after you did your gig and he was so funny, like you always are, and he's like this guy comes over to me and I didn't know who he was. The funny thing because I didn't know, I never met him. He says, wow, it's such a good show. What do you want from me? So what do you do? Then? I didn't prepare, I didn't know what to. What should I ask him for? For a defibrillator for $2,500? For a motorcycle, $36,000? Or a million dollars for a building? I don't know.
Speaker 3:So I said I take a chance. I said you know what? I would love $120,000 from you. He says, okay, I'll send it. And, like I said, who is this guy? And it's all because he came to the show. Yeah, and you opened him up, like the fact that you come and I always say having people like you in a serious organization like United Hotels. It's all about going into terror zones and war zones and heart attacks and strokes. What does a comedian like Modi end up? It's like a fluffer. You open up their neshama.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay.
Speaker 3:You really open them up to realize like, oh, you know what they're serious in their business. They're running billions of dollars in their business and all of a sudden a guy Modi oh, you know what they're serious in their business. They're running billions of dollars in their business and all of a sudden a guy Modi makes them laugh. Right. Making laugh in Judaism is really opening yourself to Hashem.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's the Hasidic way and I really think this is many times. This wasn't the only time that it happened. I saw it in other shows that I, that you had, I had you, and I'm sure every organization enjoys the fact that you, you talk and you, you open them up and then it's easier for me to do the job right did you feel like you should have asked him for more?
Speaker 2:yes, definitely I was like.
Speaker 3:I was like, did I just do a mistake?
Speaker 1:no, no, but you had a relationship. Yeah, listen, comedy buffers. And here's Modi. I'm following Ellie Beers. Ellie Beers is like the top of the and here's Modi pre-show. When he comes up then.
Speaker 3:This lady lost her fingers and then her eye flew out and her stomach opened up. And here's Modi, and here's Mody, and here's.
Speaker 2:Mody, okay, that's a really beautiful story. You always say that, right, you always say that it was one of these shows.
Speaker 1:That was. It took place. Listen, there's theaters, there's theaters. We did two theaters in Israel together. We did. But there's like backyard telophallic. My parents' backyard Boom Microphone dinner. Dah, dah, just do it.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it just happens. You know I'm kind of avoiding those lately, but but but no, I can tell you the fact that you you're making fun of Hatzalah many times. Actually, people said you know they never heard of Hatzalah until you started making fun of Hatzalah.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's amazing and it was in my special.
Speaker 1:In my comedy special that's out now, Know your Audience. I address Hatzalah and obviously it's the American Hatzalah, which is completely different from the Israeli Hatzalah.
Speaker 3:We don't have all the Visually.
Speaker 1:We have less keychains, less keychains. Visually, the ambulances here are the size of houses over there. They're on skateboards and uh and and everyone there is like all trim and da da, da hudson guys here look like they all just came from a, from from a brunch. They all, they look, they look, they look full. Um, not all, not all, you guys know I'm kidding um 90 percent, 90%, 90%.
Speaker 3:But you have to talk about it, you have to mention it, you can't just no, but it's funny because when you say that like oh, they had a call, 12 guys showed up, two guys are treating, the rest are estimating the value of the house. Yeah, and I'm like it sounds familiar. You know, I was in that situation many times. You come to a person. He's feeling better, so you start schmoozing about. I see you just renovated your home. Who did you use? Yeah, I have a good plumber for you.
Speaker 1:It's somebody from your neighborhood. It's somebody from your neighborhood that comes in. Yes, your grandmother fell, or God forbid someone's having a heart attack. Okay, eight guys show up. You can't have eight guys working on one person, right, so the others are just hanging out. But they know you. How's your daughter? How's this? I know someone in Muncie just got married. That you know.
Speaker 3:So I'll tell you something funny. So I have a story in this book. It's called Married by Accident. And I have a story in this book. It's called Married by Accident and what happened was we had a call in the highway in Jerusalem, tel Aviv, and a car was flipped over. At 2 o'clock in the morning One of our volunteers, sharon Slater, gets there.
Speaker 3:She's treating with another young guy like 22-year-old guy. They're working together getting the guy out, saving him and blah, blah, blah A lot of blood, am ambulances show up, police After that. You know the guys. Okay, we have to like know each other. They said so who are you? Who are you? I'm from Yeshiva in study, I volunteer in Yetzela, but I'm in Israel from Brazil. And she says to him oh, you know what? Are you dating anyone, she? He says no, I'm not dating. He says you know, my sister could be a great date for you. And the next day he was dating his, his, her sister and they got married and they have a bunch of kids. Now it's like these are the things that happen in Hatzalah. You know, you go save someone, you come back with a shidduch, exactly.
Speaker 2:Listen, just because you have to be somewhere. Number one I just want to tell you that usually Modi. Ellie, Ellie, Ellie we have to get Ellie Like that was, like this is going to be.
Speaker 1:In the Jewish world. This is one of the pillars. Yeah, this is one of the pillars of the Jewish world.
Speaker 2:And the other thing is, before we go, can you tell us about the two volunteers who were taken hostage? You gave me this beautiful bring them home tag that we're all hoping to be able to get.
Speaker 3:It's so hard for me and for every one of us to think that we still have 133 hostages. Who knows how many of them are alive. Many of them are women, and we have two volunteers that are hostages now. One of them is Bar Cooperstein, who you're wearing his tag. 21-year-old boy. His father volunteered for us and on the way to save lives. His father was injured and lost his ability to walk. He was on a motorcycle. He was injured on the way to save a four-year-old girl, choking. Tal is now 100% on a wheelchair, can't move. His son decided he wants to be a lifesaver too. He's in the army, he went through training and he was there October 7th helping saving people. He was kidnapped, bar Kuberstein. We're still waiting for him to return.
Speaker 3:Second one is Dolev Yehud, who told his wife I'll be back soon. He lived right next to the Bibas family, which is the kids with the redhead and next door, and he ran out to save people maybe the Bibas, who knows and he said don't leave the bomb shelter. She had three kids. His wife was pregnant. He never came back. We actually saw his walkie-talkie in Han Yunus and he was kidnapped there and his sister and him were kidnapped. Um dolev had a baby a week and a half after he was kidnapped, a baby girl, and these are the volunteers who put their life. We had eight volunteers that were killed. Till now, 25 were injured and two were kidnapped, and it's every one of them is a world by itself and for us, for me, it's, it's hard. So I gave you these this little just to think about our volunteers and, hopefully, bizrat hashem maybe we'll bring them in the show one day.
Speaker 1:Oh man, that's what it's my. Whenever anybody asks me, who do you, who's your your dream guest? I said bring me any one of the hostages. Uh, let my people know. Let my people Let my people know, let my people go. Let my people know how to help you. What's the number one way to send you energy, send you money, send you their love? What's the website to donate to?
Speaker 3:It's easy, it's israelrescueorg israelrescueorg. Because Hatzalah means rescue, save, and the problem is a lot of people think we're Hezbollah and people end up sending the money to Hezbollah because Hatzela, hezbollah is almost the same. So we actually put our website.
Speaker 1:Is that one of your bits?
Speaker 3:Seriously, I had people donate money to us $18,000 check from a lady in Oklahoma and she wrote Hezbollah thousand dollar check from a lady in oklahoma and she wrote hezbollah and she wrote friends of hezbollah, american. So we actually have a website called israelrescueorg israelrescueorg.
Speaker 1:Wow so, michael, that's so funny. Um, israelrescueorg. Uh, help, help what. You're sitting in your home you're watching the news you're freaking out on your phone. You want to do something. That's it. Send 18,000, 180,000 to United Hudsulli. You heard on this podcast what that goes.
Speaker 3:I would love to have an ambicycle or an ambulance. We have an ambulance. We could put a million names or one name. So, like that joke you had yeah, that joke I would like to have a Modi ambulance with a picture on it so we can have a lot of people to donate towards an ambulance in Israel saving lives with Modi in honor of Modi.
Speaker 2:How much is an ambulance? That's a great idea, it's only $225,000.
Speaker 3:Only, or a motorcycle $36,000.
Speaker 2:That is a great idea. Donate in honor of Modi.
Speaker 3:We'll have a link. I'll put a link together. I promise you we'll raise the money right away for an ambicycle or-. Put the link up. We'll do it. I'll put the link. Put the link. Put the link up and we'll dedicate it when you're in Israel on your next show.
Speaker 1:Okay, june, which will be July 16th. Yes, july 16th.
Speaker 3:July 16th. That's amazing. I'll be there. I'll be there A fleet of motorcycles, a fleet of motorcycles.
Speaker 2:A fleet of motor motorcycles. A fleet of motorcycles.
Speaker 1:It's a little chicer than an ambulance.
Speaker 2:No, but it's also, how much is a motorcycle? $36,000. No, it's nothing Fully loaded.
Speaker 1:It's nothing. We have a picture on you, rothschild.
Speaker 3:I'm doing a podcast with Rothschild. Is a building A building?
Speaker 1:a Mody building, the Mody Hospital.
Speaker 2:Yes, I love it. This is a fleet of Mody motorcycles.
Speaker 1:So, put that up and we'll tell people to send money to do it.
Speaker 2:I have one request.
Speaker 1:I want a jacket out of this alright, they've got merch Kanai Nahara, we're going to get you jackets, we have socks, we have t-shirts, we have everything. Yeah, they have socks the guys, the volunteers had the socks, it's so, it's so important. It gives them a sense of community we have underwear. Oh my God, and that phone that they have which tells them where everything's happening. It's unbelievable, it's fully machine.
Speaker 3:All right, we have a jacket for you and a Mody Ambu-cycle, a Mody fleet of motorcycles.
Speaker 2:Jeremy is about to have a heart attack if we don't get him out of here.
Speaker 1:Okay, we are and I am at mod by now. The special is on YouTube. Know your audience, make sure you see it. Find someone who can't get to it. Millennials one of your missions in life is to help people who are not tech savvy. Make sure your grandparents, your parents, whoever needs to see the special, sees the special. Know your audience. It should be on YouTube by now. Tickets for shows We've just announced Australia we're probably adding more shows there. Jerusalem July 16th and London and many more shows, modilivecom and.
Speaker 1:I'm at Periel on Instagram and that's it and Ellie Beer at Israeli.
Speaker 3:IsraelRescueorg, israelrescueorg you should find me actually in my social media. Maybe I got two more likes. It's Ellie underscore beer B-E-R.
Speaker 1:B-E-R.
Speaker 3:At Ellie Beer? No, it's at Ellie Beer. I don't know what is my Instagram. I have no idea. You know these things. I don't know your.
Speaker 1:Instagram. Yeah, so it's my no, you know E underscore beer like a dream Right E-L-I underscore B-E-E-R and say hi to him and tell him how amazing he is and that you enjoyed him on the podcast. Thank you all very much. Thank you to our sponsors, a&h Provisions, and also Weitz and Luxembourg. Thank you all for making this happen.