Myrtle Sitowitz, Longtime Supporter of Israel and of Magen David Adom, Passes

The Board of Directors and staff of American Friends of Magen David Adom mourn the passing of Myrtle Sitowitz, a lifelong supporter of Israel and the Jewish community worldwide.

Myrtle’s support of Soviet Jewry in the ’70s and ’80s and, more recently, of Magen David Adom, Israel’s paramedic and Red Cross service, was instrumental in enabling Refusniks to live free and in saving injured and sick Israelis requiring emergency medical treatment.

Myrtle was greatly moved last year when a photo of two praying Magen David Adom EMTs — a Muslim facing Mecca, and a Jew facing Jerusalem — went viral last year at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The image, she said, captured what she loved most about Israel and Magen David Adom, Jews and Arabs living and working together. And the ambulance the two EMTs had been assigned to, and that was pictured in the background of the photo, was one she and friends had raised the money for.

An avid actor in her younger years, it would be Myrtle’s ambulance that would ultimately be seen by an audience of millions around the world.

Our heartfelt condolences to Myrtle’s daughters and sons-in-law, Orly and Mack, and Eve and Reuben; her grandchildren, Emmet and Hayden; and her entire family.