ISRAEL
How Magen David Adom is protecting Israel’s blood supply By Jay Bycer
Above: Professor Eliat Shinar Right: A rendering of The Marcus National Blood Services Center to be constructed.
“W
hat would happen if the blood supply stopped in Israel?” That is the question that Magen David Adom’s Director of Blood Services, Professor Eliat Shinar, asked several years ago. Dr. Shinar will be coming to address this and other issues pertaining to Israel’s new blood center and its operations on March 30 at 7 pm at Congregation Or Tzion at 16415 N. 90th St. in Scottsdale. The Marcus National Blood Services Center is the first underground blood center and will serve as a model and vanguard of future blood center construction around the world. The $130 million center is currently being built with the latest high tech and construction systems to withstand most types of attacks to safeguard Israel’s lifeline of blood supplies. The vast majority of funding for the center is being provided by the American Friends of Magen David Adom. Magen David Adom’s Director-General Eli Bin, says the 38 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER MARCH/APRIL 2020 | ARIZONA 2019 | ARIZONA JEWISHJEWISH LIFE LIFE
move to build a new blood center was driven, in part, by the fact that Israel’s population has roughly doubled since the current facility was built in the 1980s in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv. However, recent events have shown that the nation’s lifeline of blood may be in danger of running low and needs to be protected. In Israel’s last war in 2014, several Hamas rockets landed near Tel Aviv, causing MDA’s blood processing operations to be moved to a bomb shelter, which drastically reduced its ability to supply blood to Israel’s population. “Nowhere in Israel are we immune to rocket attacks now,” Bin says, “forcing us to rethink how we protect the nation’s blood supply.” Protecting the nation’s blood supply has now become one of the largest security issues facing the survival of Israel today. Many people in the United States are unaware that there is only one blood center operated by MDA, which supplies
