Yehuda Meshi-Zahav has travelled far from his Neturei Karta origins. Growing up haredi in a family fervently opposed to Zionism, Meshi-Zahav, chairman of ZAKA Search and Rescue, has turned his life over to serving Israel and the Jewish people.
He’ll be in Toronto this weekend with an important message for Jews all over the world. “ZAKA is not our organization. We are only the soldiers in the field doing this work, but the organization belongs to the Jewish people around the world.”
READ: A personal view of MDA, Israel’s emergency response service
Best known for its work in what ZAKA International director David Rose calls “forensic chesed shel emet,” ranging from terrorism to car accidents and suicides, ZAKA volunteers show up far beyond the scenes most people associate with the organization’s distinctive fluorescent green vests.
In 2010, ZAKA – an acronym for “identifying the victims of disaster” – travelled to Haiti to retrieve the body of 36-year-old Montreal businessman Shmuel Alexander Bitton, who had just checked into his hotel when a deadly earthquake struck. Though the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF)said searching was too risky, and local authorities wanted to bulldoze the building, ZAKA combed through the hotel until Bitton’s remains were found.
In 2006, ZAKA volunteers were also on scene to search for two Toronto men who went missing while fishing on Lake Nipissing, Ont.
“What other organization will go from one end of the earth to the other to bring back the body of a Jewish boy?” asks Meshi-Zahav. In the week he spoke with The CJN, ZAKA was active in the Philippines and Mali, as well as countless incidents within Israel itself.
Canadian Ambassador Vivian Bercovici has encouraged Meshi-Zahav to travel to Canada, to set up local units if possible. He will speak at Kehillat Shaarei Torah in Toronto on Shabbat Chanukah as well as at Aish HaTorah’s Thornhill Community Shul.
Sharing ZAKA’s message is a mission Meshi-Zahav accepted the day he witnessed a terrorist bus explosion in 1989. An 11th-generation Jerusalemite with ties to the extremist Eda Haredit, his family had demonstrated against the State of Israel. All that changed in an instant.
“I had to put aside all my differences,” he says. “I started to interact more and more with Israelis, with Zionists, with the government.” Though his family and community denounced him, he insists, “This is the way I live. This is what I believe in.”
On Yom Ha’atzmaut in 2003, Meshi-Zahav was given the honour of lighting a torch in the main government ceremony on Mount Herzl.
“People talk about divisiveness in Israeli society. They need to come to ZAKA to see just the opposite, how we can get along with one another. Regardless of what you are, what sex, what you believe in; Jewish, not Jewish; religious, not religious.”
Saving those who can be saved, honouring those who cannot
The organization already has teams all over the world, including in England, New York and France. In terrorist incidents at the Hyper Cacher market in Paris last year, and a few years earlier in Toulouse, local ZAKA units were ready to respond. “It’s something that people don’t think is going to happen,” says Rose. “But ZAKA is always ready for what tomorrow brings.”
ZAKA’s motto is, “Saving those who can be saved; honouring those who cannot.”
In Israel, ZAKA volunteers, many of whom also work with Magen David Adom, contributed 1.5 million hours in 2014. Although most are Orthodox or haredi, they come from all walks of life and serve every victim, regardless of background, race, ethnicity or religion, including the terrorists themselves.
“The work of ZAKA is absurd,” says ZAKA’s northern chief officer, Chezky Farkas. “We take care of the victims and also the person who killed them.”
However, in October, at Meshi-Zahav’s initiative, ZAKA started using black body bags for terrorists’ remains.
“ZAKA is a holy organization,” says Meshi-Zahav. “We have to deal with (terrorists), but at the same time, we’re not going to honour them the same way.” Terrorists’ bodies are also transported separately.
He and his team have travelled to Thailand, Nepal, Mumbai and beyond. “There isn’t a shaliach of Chabad who doesn’t know Yehuda Meshi-Zahav,” says Rose. “There is not an Israeli ambassador or consul around the world that Yehuda cannot call up at 2 o’ clock in the morning.” With his distinctive white beard and payot, he is often recognized on the streets of Israel with waves and shouts of gratitude. “He’s a celebrity in Israel today.”
READ: Jews, Arabs unite as volunteers with Israeli emergency response network
In the Mali terrorist incident on Nov. 20, in which an Israeli teacher was killed, ZAKA acted as an unofficial government emissary, since Mali does not maintain diplomatic ties with Israel. ZAKA is recognized by the United Nations for its humanitarian work, and consistently ranks second after the IDF among the country’s best-loved NGOs.
ZAKA’s holy imperative comes from the Torah, which teaches that a hanged murderer should not be left overnight. “Each person is created in the image of God.” Even the High Priest on his way to perform the Yom Kippur service in the Holiest of Holies – if he encountered an unattended body – had to drop everything to bury the body.
Despite the halachic urgency of his task, Meshi-Zahav says ZAKA is more about honouring the living than the dead. “The psychological effect on a family,” he says, “for them to have that closure, that’s the most important thing we can do today.
“ZAKA is the only organization in the world that hopes we’ll be out of a job,” says Meshi-Zahav. “But we have to be ready, we must be available in real time, and we must have the tools that we need in order to continue doing what we need to do.”