This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Mich chapter.

Fact: Hasidic Jewish women in and around the Brooklyn area had access only to male EMTs.

Problem: Hasidic Jewish women are not supposed to “so much as bare a leg” to men who are not their spouses – turning to men in their time of need was and is very uncomfortable1.

Solution: Rachel “Ruchie” Freier

Rachel “Ruchie” Freier is a lawyer, trained paramedic, and a (recently appointed) civil court judge. She is also a Hasidic Jewish woman – the first Hasidic woman elected to public office in the United States.

Judge Freier is a resident of Brooklyn, NY. The city is home to a Hasidic community in which she grew up. Her position simultaneously within the community and the courtroom is an unusual one: Men in Hasidic communities tend to be the people with employment and with power.

For instance, Hatzolah–the main ambulance service in the Hasidic community–is entirely comprised of men. In 2011, after prompting by Judge Freier, Hatzolah declined to open to female volunteers. In response, a few women from the Hasidic community approached Freier for legal advice regarding the formation of an all-female EMT service. She immediately applied for a license and, by 2014, America’s first, all-female EMT service was up and running.

The service is called “Ezras Nashim.” It’s comprised of female volunteers who respond to (mostly female) emergencies in their own vehicles– emergencies including maternity problems, heart attacks, and car accidents. The women of Ezras Nashim serve as additional aid prior to and after the arrival of 911 ambulances dispatched to the scene. Judge Freier is applying for an ambulance license so that the female volunteers can begin providing comprehensive care from the scene of the emergency through arrival at the hospital.

Freier does more than serve as the founder of Ezras Nashim–she also serves as a bridge between the Hasidic community and the court. She shares the “realities of the court” with her Hasidic community, and she shares her understanding of Hasidic culture with the court1. This is emblematic of her having achieved success as a lawyer and a judge not by resisting or disputing the Hasidic way of life, but by tirelessly working within its bounds. Within the dimensions of Hasidism, she was able to become one of the first Hasidic, female lawyers in Brooklyn, the very first Hasidic, female elected official in the United States, and she founded the first all-female EMT service in the United States.

It is important to note that Judge Freier does not believe that “men aren’t good.” Instead, she believes that “there is something different about [women] just by the fact that we’re women. We are bringing something that you can’t give.”1In a community were women typically possess little tangible power, Judge Freier has shown that this need not be the status quo. As her mother used to say, “You can do anything unless it’s illegal, immoral, or against the Torah.”1

Citations:

Image courtesy of brooklyneagle.com and nypost.com

Ezras Nashim

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