Local businesses helping Hatzalah

By Mayer Fertig

Two local businesses are encouraging customers to help support Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau County.

The Tiger Schulmann’s martial arts school in Cedarhurst will donate $25 to Hatzalah for each customer who signs up for a trial program, which provides orientation, a uniform and two weeks of classes for $59.

The school’s Floyd Martin made the announcement Sunday onstage at the Cedarhurst Community Chest Fair.

“I saw that Hatzalah is in dire need and I want to do my part,” Martin told The Jewish Star. He has never called Hatzalah himself but said family members in Brooklyn have called for help in the past.

“When we all need them, we want them to be here,” he said. Tiger Schulmann’s is located next to Gourmet Glatt.

A popular hair salon on Central Ave, Elements, is also running a promotion to benefit Hatzalah.

Owners Danny Roselli and Stephen Gold are raffling off various services offered at their shop. Customers must write a check to Hatzalah to enter the raffle.

Roselli and Gold wanted to do something to express their appreciation to the community where they make their living, Roselli told The Jewish Star. “The people in this neighborhood have been so good to me,” he said. “They don’t have to. There’s plenty of other shops and I appreciate it.”

Gold suggested a gift to Hatzalah. The idea resonated with Roselli for several reasons, he said, the first being his friendship with Mark Davidman a”h, who died in an accident  two years ago.

“He used to ride a motorcycle and I ride a motorcycle. When he passed it really hurt me. I’m not Jewish and I’m not Orthodox, and he was one of the first people who made me see that Orthodox people are like everybody else,” Roselli said.

Davidman was an active Hatzalah member, also a factor for Roselli, who lost his father to a heart attack at a young age some 20 years ago.

“I was pumping away on his chest and they couldn’t help me,” he said, referring to a local volunteer ambulance corps in Brooklyn that didn’t offer early morning coverage.

“There was a recording on the answering machine — ‘We’re sorry, at this time we cannot take your call because we have no volunteers,’” he recalled. The squad had responded to help his father through nine previous heart attacks but on that occasion, the final one, Roselli called 9-1-1.

New York City’s emergency medical services were notoriously slow in those days, and “EMS came about a half hour or 45 minutes later,” Roselli said, too late to help his father, who was just 51 when he died.

“Hatzalah is not just for the Jews, it’s for everyone, and not everyone understands that,” Roselli said. “When you call them, they’ll come and they’ll take you to any hospital you want. And the more I learned about Hatzalah, I couldn’t fathom why anyone wouldn’t support it. “

“When mayhem is happening all you care about is that the ambulance is going to get there,” he added. “It’s very important to have a service like that and not many communities have that kind of service.”

A series of five fundraising parlor meetings for Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau County were held in Cedarhurst and Woodmere Sunday night and deemed a success by organizers. More than 200 people turned out — mostly younger members of the community, as  hoped. “Dollar amounts were generous and well above average,” reported Rabbi Elozer Kanner, a Hatzalah coordinators.

Last week The Jewish Star reported that Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau faces a $250,000 deficit for 2009.

Two local businesses are encouraging customers to help support Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau County.

The Tiger Schulmann’s martial arts school in Cedarhurst will donate $25 to Hatzalah for each customer who signs up for a trial program, which provides orientation, a uniform and two weeks of classes for $59.

The school’s Floyd Martin made the announcement Sunday onstage at the Cedarhurst Community Chest Fair.

“I saw that Hatzalah is in dire need and I want to do my part,” Martin told The Jewish Star. He has never called Hatzalah himself but said family members in Brooklyn have called for help in the past.

“When we all need them, we want them to be here,” he said. Tiger Schulmann’s is located next to Gourmet Glatt.

A popular hair salon on Central Ave, Elements, is also running a promotion to benefit Hatzalah.

Owners Danny Roselli and Stephen Gold are raffling off various services offered at their shop. Customers must write a check to Hatzalah to enter the raffle.

Roselli and Gold wanted to do something to express their appreciation

to the community where they make their living, Roselli told The Jewish Star. “The people in this neighborhood have been so good to me,” he said. “They don’t have to. There’s plenty of other shops and I appreciate it.”

Gold suggested a gift to Hatzalah. The idea resonated with Roselli for several reasons, he said, the first being his friendship with Mark Davidman a”h, who died in an accident  two years ago.

“He used to ride a motorcycle and I ride a motorcycle. When he passed it really hurt me. I’m not Jewish and I’m not Orthodox, and he was one of the first people who made me see that Orthodox people are like everybody else,” Roselli said.

Davidman was an active Hatzalah member, also a factor for Roselli, who lost his father to a heart attack at a young age some 20 years ago.

“I was pumping away on his chest and they couldn’t help me,” he said, referring to a local volunteer ambulance corps in Brooklyn that didn’t offer early morning coverage.

“There was a recording on the answering machine — ‘We’re sorry, at this time we cannot take your call because we have no volunteers,’” he recalled. The squad had responded to help his father through nine previous heart attacks but on that occasion, the final one, Roselli called 9-1-1.

New York City’s emergency medical services were notoriously slow in those days, and “EMS came about a half hour or 45 minutes later,” Roselli said, too late to help his father, who was just 51 when he died.

“Hatzalah is not just for the Jews, it’s for everyone, and not everyone understands that,” Roselli said. “When you call them, they’ll come and they’ll take you to any hospital you want. And the more I learned about Hatzalah, I couldn’t fathom why anyone wouldn’t support it. “

“When mayhem is happening all you care about is that the ambulance is going to get there,” he added. “It’s very important to have a service like that and not many communities have that kind of service.”

A series of five fundraising parlor meetings for Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau County were held in Cedarhurst and Woodmere Sunday night and deemed a success by organizers. More than 200 people turned out — mostly younger members of the community, as  hoped. “Dollar amounts were generous and well above average,” reported Rabbi Elozer Kanner, a Hatzalah coordinator.

Last week The Jewish Star reported that Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau faces a $250,000 deficit for 2009.

At one of five parlmor meetings for Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau County, Sunday night Sept 13, 2009 at the home of Surie and Ushi Klein

Hatzalah supporters at one of five fundraising parlor meetings held Sunday night Sept 13, 2009 in Cedarhurst and Woodmere to benefit Hatzalah of the Rockaways and Nassau County. Hatzalah member and one of the meeting organizers, Moshe Ratner, is second from right. (Photo courtesy Hatzalah)