United Hatzalah, Faith, and Philanthropic Aims
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/06/21
Mark Gerson is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and best-selling author dedicated to bridging faith and culture. He co-founded United Hatzalah, Israel’s volunteer EMT network, and leads Torah Tuesdays with Eagles Wings, a global Christian organization supporting Israel. Mark is the author of the forthcoming book, God Was Right: How Modern Social Science Proves the Torah is True, and hosts The Rabbi’s Husband, featuring discussions with leaders like Tucker Carlson and Senator Cory Booker. He specializes in faith-driven leadership, social science validations of religious texts, and ethical business practices. United Hatzalah, with 8,000 volunteer EMTs, ensures rapid first response in emergencies, saving lives daily. African Mission Healthcare partners with Christian hospitals across 19 countries to provide essential medical care and infrastructure. Gerson’s upcoming book, “God Was Right,” argues that modern social science validates Torah ethics, promoting happier, healthier lives. Through his podcast “The Rabbi’s Husband,” he explores biblical inspirations across diverse leaders. Gerson emphasizes aligning faith with business for ethical, impactful leadership.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: How has your experience co-founding United Hatzalah shaped views on the intersection of faith and philanthropy?
Mark Gerson: I have co-founded and Chair two charitable organizations — United Hatzalah of Israel and African Mission Healthcare. United Hatzalah is Israel’s system of crowd-sourced volunteer first response. It is based on the fact that ambulances, even in the most advanced cities, will take an average of ten minutes to someone who calls 911. This is no one’s fault — it is driven by the fact that ambulances are too big to be fast and too expensive to be ubiquitous.
However, a victim of pre-hospital trauma — someone who calls 911, maybe someone who is choking, bleeding, having a heart attack, a stroke or is giving birth suddenly — does not need an ambulance immediately. He needs a trained and equipped first responder at his side, ideally within 90 seconds.
So we built, over 20 years, an organization that has 8,000 volunteer EMTs and paramedics — who are ready, at all times, to drop whatever they are doing (working, eating, sleeping, celebrating, whatever) to rush to someone in their immediate vicinity who is in need. Each volunteer carries on him/her, at all times, a full medic kit that we provide — so that the volunteer is always ready for everything: from a car accident to a child drowning to someone choking to a heart attack to a woman giving birth suddenly.
Because we are crowd-sourced — because we are able to locate the closest first responder and dispatch him to the scene immediately — we have the best response times in the world. We respond to an average of 2,200 calls a day — and save dozens of lives every day.
I co-founded African Mission Healthcare in 2010 with my great friend Dr. Jon Fielder, who has been a missionary physician in Africa for his career. We partner with Christian missionary physicians at Christian hospitals in Africa to provide clinical care to the poor, enable training of physicians and other medical professionals, build infrastructure (from oxygen to physician housing) and do hospital administration. We have 31 hospital partners in 19 countries.
Many of the doctors we work with have devoted their entire lives to serving the poor — and doing so in medical conditions that are unimaginable to any physician in the West (operating without piped oxygen or consistent power, among other things) and living in conditions that I don’t think I could deal with for literally a weekend. They do so because they are inspired by their Christian faith to serve those who Jesus called in the Book of Matthew, “the least among us.”
This intersection of faith and philanthropy, where both organizations sit, has taught my wife (a Rabbi) and I a great deal. We have seen how faith can bring out genuine greatness in people — how a devoted Jew (regardless of how ritually observant) will be excited to rush from his Shabbat table, wake up in the middle of the night or dash around the corner to render care to someone he doesn’t know. And this devotion (which is not unique to Jews in United Hatzalah; we have many Christian, Muslim and Druze volunteers as well) does not even stop there — there are so many instances where, like what happened last week, a volunteer will return to the home of a patient he took to the hospital to clean it up…so that the patient can recover in a clean and welcoming environment.
And we have seen the same devotion with our Christian missionary partners (and now often friends) in Africa — we have seen how these people, who could be making excellent livings in the West, devote their entire lives to serving the poor due to their faith.
The missionary physicians we know through African Mission Healthcare and the volunteers we know through United Hatzalah are the best people we know — the people we want our children to be like — and we are blessed to be able to be their philanthropic partner.
And everyone who gives to either organization (or a similar organization — like Samaritan’s Purse) should regard themselves as partners — and never say (or think!): “It’s only money.” Both the missionary physicians and the United Hatzalah volunteers have said that without the financial support of philanthropists — they’d be working with Band-Aides.
Jacobsen: God Was Right: How Modern Social Science Proves the Torah is True is an upcoming book. What is social science affirming the ethics of the Torah?
Gerson:I have been studying the Torah every day for probably 15 years now — I start my day by running six miles on the treadmill, where I listen and watch Torah commentary, and then study subsequently. The first thing I really understood about the Torah is what kind of book it is. It is not a history book or a science book or a cookbook or even a lawbook — it is, as the Torah says of itself in Deuteronomy, a guidebook.
As a guidebook, the Torah exists to help us live happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives — in the most practical ways. As such, it makes hundreds of primarily psychological, social and political claims — about who we are and who we can and should be personally and communally. Many are completely counter-intuitive — such as that we can choose to be anti-fragile, we can change our character (and who we are) by following one simple rule, our choice of clothing is existentially important (and for reasons that have nothing to do with modesty or temperature control), and on and on.
For several thousand years, people have assessed the Torah using faith and experience. Now, thanks to the advent of technology — we have science: specifically 21st century social science. The 21st century social scientists, whose work ranges from obscure journals to best-sellers, have asked the same questions that the Biblical Author did.
I realized that the claims of the Torah can now be validated or invalidated socially scientifically. In the book, I go through the Torah claims on dozens of subjects — from diversity to routine to fear to future orientation. It turns out that the Torah is absolutely right in all of its asserts; in other words, the Torah has now been proven true.
Many of the chapters also address where society and culture are in conjunction with the claims of the Torah and the findings of modern social science. There, we are often going in the opposite directions— and I address that as well.
Jacobsen: What lessons have The Rabbi’s Husband taught you, in hosting?
Gerson: With the Rabbi’s Husband podcast, I did around 150 or so interviews with leaders from a variety of fields — Senators and NFL players, Pastors and Rabbis, physicians and Congressmen — about their favorite Biblical passage. I learned just how the Bible — and often singular Biblical stories, laws and passages — can drive, intrigue and inspire a wide variety of people. I think the most popular episode was Tucker Carlson’s — when we discussed whether Adam was right to trust Eve about the fruit, and its statement about gender relationships.
Jacobsen: How can faith and business align to create ethical and impactful leadership? Gerson: The Torah is the greatest guide for everything — including ethical business leadership. Here are just a few things:
Leviticus 19: “You shall have honest scales and weights.” A business leader who follows this principle will be sure to always have accurate accounting, fair billing, transparent performance metrics, honest advertising and clear claims about product risks and specifications.
Deuteronomy 24: “You shall give him [your worker] his wage on his day and not let the sun set over it.” A business leader will always pay his workers immediately and completely.
Leviticus 19 and 23: This commands that the landowner must leave a part of his field where the poor can reap. A business leader following this principle will identify how he can allocate some of his products and services — in addition to money — for the benefit of the less fortunate. And he will also do so with care for the dignity of the recipient — as this is why the poor are to reap themselves (rather than to get handouts from the landowner).
Jacobsen: What insights come out of Torah Tuesdays and Eagles Wings in interfaith collaboration?
I teach Torah every Tuesday at 12pm EST on Zoom to primarily Evangelicals — through the remarkable Christian Zionist and philo-Semitic parachurch ministry Eagles Wings. We go through the Torah line by line, extracting the practical teachings and lessons for our daily lives. I love the insights that the Pastor hosting the session (and the Pastor/hosts change each week) often bring from the New Testament and from their Christian experience. And it is such a pleasure to be able to study the text in such depth. We do about a book of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) every year. If anyone wants to join, email me at mgerson@godwasright.com — and we’ll send you the Zoom link!
Jacobsen: What is relevant and irrelevant in the interpretive frame from the Torah in navigating contemporary life? People orient the truths of religion and emphasize and de-emphasize in civilizational seasons. Ours seems no different.
Gerson: Great question — as everything in the Torah is completely relevant for navigating contemporary life. The Torah is the guidebook for just that. Every question, concern, challenge, opportunity that anyone has can be enlightened by the Torah in some profound and very helpful way. That is what “God Was Right” is about!
Jacobsen: Thank you for the opportunity and your time, Mark.
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