Israel saves lives of Arab and African children

The American Public Health Association (APHA) last week praised a video produced by the Israel Collective, a project of Christians United for Israel, showcasing an Israeli charitable organization and medical center dedicated to saving the lives of children regardless of race, religion or culture.

Presented in the film festival at APHA’s 143rd annual meeting, the video, titled “The Heart of Israel,” features the work of Save a Child’s Heart (SACH), a non-profit that provides life-saving heart procedures for children from developing countries.

“We are very proud that this represents the best of Israel, based on the core Jewish values that each and every one of us has been brought up on, and that value is life,” says the group’s executive director, Simon Fisher.

Directed and edited by Dan Ostrem and co-produced by Raj Nair and Josh Ahrens, who serve as the leadership of the Israel Collective, the roughly six-minute documentary interviews doctors, mothers, and caretakers whose lives have been saved by this unique partnership.

“Israel is this tiny democracy in the Middle East, the only functioning democracy that is surrounded by neighboring countries that are hostile or unstable. While it is important for the media to tell that story, we feel it’s equally important to the tell the story of Israel’s heart and Israel’s people and even with this extreme difficulty they continue to reach out with a hand of peace and of generosity,” Ahrens tells the Salomon Center for American Jewish Thought.

“There are so many stories like this coming out of Israel and it’s our goal to find them and document them in a beautiful way that honors the people and brings these stories to a world that needs to hear them.”

The production features two young Muslim mothers of children saved by SACH and the Wolfson Medical Center.