Very few people in the world will ever have the chance to experience an "interfaith moment" quite like mine.

 

There I stood in Davos, Switzerland at the World Economic Forum with three smiling new friends from the four corners of the earth. Laughing side-by-side were members of all the major religions of the world; a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, and a Jew. It was a "congregation" of social entrepreneurs completely diverse in culture and faith and yet immediately bonded by an overarching belief -- the belief in life.

 

Together we were united by the fundamental teaching of all our religions; love your neighbor as you love yourself. It doesn't matter where you live, what language you speak, or what spiritual orientation you have, at the end of the day we are all connected by same sanctity of life and mortal blood that runs through our veins.

 

This appreciation for life is what started United Hatzalah of Israel and is the belief that has made our non-profit, volunteer emergency first response organization such a success.

 

United Hatzalah has more than 1,700 medically trained and equipped volunteers from all backgrounds -- secular and religious, Jewish and non-Jewish. Using a distributed network and proprietary GPS technology, volunteers are able to respond within two to three minutes of any emergency call throughout the State of Israel, for free. In 2011 alone, United Hatzalah responded to more than 193,000 emergency calls and has saved countless lives that may have been lost. 

I truly believe that Hatzalah's distributed emergency response model can be easily replicated to save lives throughout the world, and was in Davos to spread the word about what we are doing in Israel.

 

The WEF gave me the opportunity to share this message and my story with people I would otherwise never have been able to meet. I explained to an author from Kuwait, a politician from France, and even a businessman from Saudi Arabia that it is possible to implement a system of volunteers in their own country's who are willing to jump out of bed in the middle of the night to save a stranger's life, regardless of religion, culture, color or location. We can, and hopefully one day will, create a United Hatzalah of Yemen, France, Brazil or Indonesia. Each will be "of" their own country but will abide by our guiding principle "no life need be lost when a volunteer can save it."

 

Until then, we have begun to create the Capital of the world in Davos. During the World Economic Forum Annual Meetings we come together to share our interests with each other, our humanly needs to protect our children, provide for our families and dream about a better future for our people. Each year we share new interfaith moments and relationships, planting new ideas that will sprout and grow to change the world.

 

Visit United Hatzalah on YouTube to watch the video of my "Interfaith Davos Moment" http://bit.ly/interfaithmoment