A unique bar mitzva gift: MDA training

Friends, relatives of bat/bar mitzva girls and boys looking for a thoughtful gift can now consider one from MDA.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
WOMEN DONATE blood at the Magen David Adom station 370 (photo credit: Courtesy MDA)
WOMEN DONATE blood at the Magen David Adom station 370
(photo credit: Courtesy MDA)
Friends and relatives of bat/bar mitzva girls and boys looking for a thoughtful and unusual gift can now consider one from Magen David Adom – a modified, four-session lifesaving course.
The first-aid, blood-supply and ambulance service said on Wednesday that “graduates” of the 12-hour course receive a special “Project Mitzva” certificate.
The project will begin in July in some MDA branches and cost only NIS 120 per child. It has already begin in Herzliya at the communications school in the Interdisciplinary Center.
MDA explained that it has targeted 12- and 13- year-olds who are celebrating having reached adulthood according to Jewish tradition, which obliges them to observe commandments.
Since learning to save lives is the ultimate commandment, “nothing is more appropriate than learning first-aid.” MDA hopes that as they grow older, participants will take part in more advanced lifesaving courses.