Each year, the generous support of our members and Gala attendees directly funds APF’s critical programs in Israel, including our Fellowship and Medical Volunteer Programs. We invite you to join us on Sunday, November 8th at 2pm EST, as we virtually celebrate APF’s 70th Anniversary!
Hear first-hand from our esteemed guest speakers about the challenges faced by Israeli soldiers, reservists and permanent staff who are responsible for rescuing and providing medical treatment to thousands in 29 international humanitarian aid missions conducted by the IDF, whose ethos, like the State of Israel’s, is that human life comes first.
FEATURED SPEAKERS
- B.G. Dr. Tarif Bader, Former Surgeon General of the IDF
Brigadier General Dr. Tarif Bader is the first Druza Surgeon General of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Dr. Bader took part in four IDF humanitarian delegations abroad, including ones in Haiti (2010), Nepal (2015) and Turkey (2016). The hospitals in these missions treated thousands of injured civilians. During his time as Chief Medical Officer in the IDF Northern Command, he oversaw the opening of the field hospital on the Syrian border, where the IDF treated Syrians injured in the civil war.
- APF Alumnus Prof. Ofer Merin, Director General of Shaare Zedek Hospital and Commander of the IDF Military Field Hospital
Colonel (Reserves) Prof. Ofer Merin is the commander of the Israeli army’s field hospital that was recognized by the United Nations’ World Health Organization as the first “Type 3” field hospital in the world. He took part in the delegations to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, to Japan following the tsunami in 2011, to the Philippines after the typhoon in 2013, and subsequently to Nepal after the earthquake in 2015. In these delegations, he served as the medical director of the hospital. Prof. Merin received a grant from APF to study as a fellow in adult cardiac surgery at Sunnybrook hospital in Toronto, Canada, in 2001-2003. In 2007, he was appointed as responsible for readiness in emergency in Shaare Zedek, and subsequently was appointed as director of the trauma unit. In October 2018, the board of Shaare Zedek unanimously decided to appoint Prof. Merin to be the upcoming director general of the hospital, starting January 2019.