Zevik Glidai, the Branch Manager at Yad Sarah in Kiryat Shmona, has been evacuated from his home since October 20. Despite facing numerous challenges, including serving in reserve duty and relocating twice, Zevik and a small group of local volunteers have managed to keep the Yad Sarah branch in the far northern town operational.
This intrepid team of four volunteers, who have all relocated to areas nearby Kiryat Shmona, supports those who could not or would not evacuate the hard-hit city located one mile from the border with Lebanon.
Despite the near-daily deluge of rocket fire and risk to their personal safety, the Yad Sarah volunteers provide critical medical and rehabilitation supplies on a per-need basis to those who’ve remained in Kiryat Shmona and remote surrounding communities. These individuals mainly include the elderly, severely ill or disabled, along with essential workers and security forces.
“The people we help are extremely grateful,” says Zevik, 76. “The ones I deliver equipment to their homes or communities don’t stop thanking us.”
In routine times, the branch has 42 volunteers and operates several service units beyond the core medical supply lending program. Upon the government-issued evacuation order, Yad Sarah volunteers evacuated numerous mobility challenged individuals from Kiryat Shmona via the organization’s wheelchair-accessible van fleet. Since then, many branch volunteers have carried on at Yad Sarah sites in their respective areas of relocation. While volunteers act of their own volition, Yad Sarah is recognized by the State as an essential emergency service, and is authorized to operate in crises such as war.
The volunteers take turns opening the branch once a week, coordinating their efforts to serve the largest number of people who contact Zevik for assistance. They also make house calls and special deliveries to nearby communities and home-bound individuals, sometimes arranging equipment pick-ups or returns in safer areas for those too afraid to enter Kiryat Shmona.
For Zevik, who has volunteered at Yad Sarah for 38 years, this war marks the first time he’s had to evacuate his beloved home in Kiryat Shmona. For the first five months of their evacuation, Zevik and his wife stayed at their daughter’s home in the Galilee region’s Kfar Tavor to help her family while her husband was called to reserve duty.
Zevik himself served 40-plus days as a reservist in the IDF’s Casualties Center, delivering heartbreaking news to families of soldiers who had been killed or critically wounded. His daytime hours were mostly spent helping to arrange funerals and shivas (condolence visits). Yet, he made time in the afternoons to coordinate operations for Yad Sarah’s Kiryat Shmona branch, ensuring that those in need could access necessary medical equipment loans.
For the past five months, he has been staying in the Western Galilee community of Sde Ilan. He explains that the area is relatively safe, but has not been entirely free from the threat of sirens. In addition to volunteering at Yad Sarah, Zevik is a high school math teacher and has opted to stay in proximity to his hometown and Tiberias, where many of his students have been relocated.
Despite the risks, Zevik continues to regularly make the 45-minute journey from his temporary home to the branch in Kiryat Shmona.
“Arriving alone in what has essentially become a ghost town is a bit disconcerting,” says Zevik. The town is now a shell of its former self, with what he says are only a handful of stoplights and grocery stores still operating.
Yet, he remains committed to helping those who rely on Yad Sarah’s services. This is particularly crucial as Kiryat Shmona has become isolated from most outside services and as heightened threats of escalation from Hezbollah and Iran loom.
Since October 7, Yad Sarah has been bolstering operations and its inventory of at-home and out-patient medical equipment such as portable, battery-operated oxygen supplies and home hospital beds. The organization regularly consults with State authorities and adapts its precautionary measures to safeguard against potential emergencies such as widespread blackouts from threatened strikes on Israel’s power grid.
These concerns were amplified after the tragic Hezbollah rocket attack on July 28, which claimed the lives of 12 children and youth, and injured at least 42 others in the northern border town of Majdal Shams. The devastating event has shaken the entire nation and the Yad Sarah community. In response, Yad Sarah heightened preparatory alerts for all 29 of its northern sites–including Majdal Shams and Kiryat Shmona.
Despite the ongoing hardship and fear, Zevik’s dedication to his community is unwavering.
“I have no intention whatsoever to leave the North, even after the war–it’s not even a question,” he proclaims.