Dr. Joseph Offenbacher volunteered at Hadassah Ein Kerem following the events of October 7th, dedicating several days to working with us at the hospital. We were honored to collaborate with such a professional and kind individual, and we hope to meet again under happier circumstances. Here is the message Joe shared with us upon returning home:

My name is Joseph Offenbacher, and I am a Board-Certified emergency medicine attending (specialist) at New York University School of Medicine and one of the Associate Directors of the Ronald O. Perelman Department of Emergency Medicine Residency Program: NYU/Bellevue Hospital Center.

Previously, I was an EMT with Magen David Adom (MDA) and throughout the course of my own medical training have been involved with emergency medicine in Israel. In particular. Drs. Ahmed Naama and Avi Alpert have been wonderful mentors, and, through them, I have participated, regularly, with academic programing at Hadassah University Medical Center and the Israel Association of Emergency Medicine.

On the afternoon of October 7th, I reached out to Dr. Naama and Dr. Alpert about my desire to come to Israel to volunteer and serve as a physician. Thanks to their efforts I was able to obtain an Israeli medical license and left my family (wife and three young children) to arrive in Israel on October 18th.
As an American College of Surgeons (ACS) Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) instructor much of my academic concentration has been in trauma and emergency airway management. As such, my work in the Hadassah Emergency Department focused on education for the residents and faculty in areas related to advanced trauma resuscitation.

Although I came to Israel independently, I have been very grateful for all the support I received from my friends and colleagues back in New York. Working with the Hadassah emergency medicine team during this challenging time has been incredibly meaningful and I hope to continue working with them moving forward into the future.

Sincerely,
Joseph Offenbacher, MD