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"Holy Work" that Builds Bridges between Israel's Minorities
(Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs) Avigayil Kadesh - Israel's unique voluntary rescue organization, ZAKA, is adding four new units to better serve Arab, Bedouin, Circassian and Druze populations in the country's north and south. Volunteers from those minority communities will staff the units after receiving training. Small ZAKA units are already active among the Bedouin population in the south and the Druze communities of the north. Jerusalemite Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, 51, founded ZAKA in 1995. It is the only Jewish organization authorized by the Israel Police to handle recovery and body part identification. "We are open to all: Religious and not, Jews and non-Jews, Israelis and Arabs," says Meshi-Zahav. "Adding as many people as possible to our volunteering circle is a means to perfecting our world." Some of ZAKA's 1,500 volunteers have worked alongside law enforcement and emergency personnel following terrorist attacks, accidents, and natural disasters across the globe. Overseas missions became easier to arrange after the UN officially recognized ZAKA as an international humanitarian volunteer organization in 2005.