ZAKA
ZAKA זק"א - איתור חילוץ והצלה - חסד של אמת is a community emergency response team in Israel. ZAKA members, most of whom are Orthodox Jews, assist ambulance crews, identify the victims of terrorism, and when necessary gather body parts and spilled blood for burial. They also voluntarily provide the first aid and rescue services and help in search for missing people. The organization has been founded by Yehuda Meshi Zahav and Rabbi Moshe Aizenbach.
ZAKA has begun when a group of volunteers got together to assist in recovery of human remains from a terrorist attack on Line 405 bus in 1989. In 1995 they were officially recognized by the Israeli government and worked close with the Israeli police, identifying disaster victims. The official "governmental" name of this organization is ZAKA, an abbervation of "Identifying Victims of Disaster" (zihuy korbanot asson). The founders and members, however, prefer to call it "Hessed shel Emet" ("A True grace") because of their dedicated work to bring bodies of slain Jews into proper Jewish burial. In Jewish tradition, the phrase "Hessed shel Emet" is referred for doing grace to the dead. It is considered as a true grace, since a reward is not expected.
ZAKA has gained highly positive public opinion because of its devoted conduct in treating the bodies of the victims killed by terrorist suicide bombings, and their great contributation to the Israeli society. ZAKA's founder, Yehuda Meshi Zahav, was awarded to light a becon on Israel's Independence Day official ceremony on Mount Hertzl.
Recently, a group of ZAKA volunteers flew to Hague with a skeleton of the burnt bus destroyed on January 29, 2004 in Jerusalem suicide bombing.
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