The all-female ambulance corps serving Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community is adding a second ambulance, a move Ezras Nashim’s leaders are hopeful will increase its ability to answer calls for emergency medical care and cut down on response times, while upholding their values of modesty.
Ezras Nashim, Hebrew for “helping women,” was founded in 2014 by Rachel Freier, who would later become the country’s first ultra-Orthodox Hasidic woman to hold public office when she was elected to a New York City Civil Court judgeship. After hearing from women in her community who felt uncomfortable with male emergency responders, Freier recognized the need for a women-staffed ambulance service.
Since receiving its ambulance license in 2020, Ezras Nashim — a team of 50 volunteer EMTs who respond to emergencies ranging from labor and delivery to critical-care transport — has handled what Chief Operating Officer Leah Levine estimated to be about 1,000 calls in Borough Park, Flatbush, Kensington and Bensonhurst. Levine said the ambulance corps has recently expanded to Crown Heights, and has plans to reach more New York communities that could benefit from their services.
The expansion took place despite opposition from the traditional all-male EMT squad, Hatzalah — which according to its website, responds to 100,000 calls annually, covers more than 55 neighborhoods, and operates 85 ambulances throughout the state — and which had petitioned against Ezras Nashim’s initial ambulance license.
The group unveiled its second ambulance with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in May.
Levine said that as the crew prepares for the second ambulance to go online, she is curious to see how call volume increases and response times change. Since the vehicle was with a mechanic in July and it’s still early, there is no clear data to determine exactly what the expansion might mean for the organization.
“Now it’s more people in different communities, calling us, trusting us, knowing who we are,” Levine said. “The call for us to expand to more communities is crazy. All the time, all over the United States, from Florida to California, people are begging me, ‘when are we expanding?’”
Levine said that she is focused on expanding the service to reach more people according to God’s timing. “There’s enough communities within New York that we would probably want to get to,” she added. “It’s the vision.”
Levine said all volunteers at Ezras Nashim, like anyone wanting to become an EMT, must complete a New York State-approved training course, which requires a minimum of 180 hours of instruction for certification. The course includes both classroom learning and hands-on skill implementation.
But Ezras Nashim, which bills itself as the nation’s only all-female ambulance corps, offers its own training program, which Levine said sets it apart — women who might have never pursued EMT certification elsewhere are drawn to the organization because they believe in its mission and values.
She added that not all volunteers are cleared to drive the ambulances, but the organization strives to approve as many as possible to maximize its operational capacity.
One of the guiding beliefs in Orthodox Judaism is the concept of the afterlife, commonly referred to as Olam Haba — Hebrew for “the world to come.” The work that Levine and other Jewish people do, she explained in a conversation in Borough Park last spring, is done with the next life in mind.
“We focus on the next world,” she said.
Levine believes she was called to this work, grounded in that very idea.
“I feel like I’m a puppet that God used,” she said. “I don’t think it makes sense — but it’s just working, and I’m grateful I was chosen.”
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