All-female Hasidic EMT corps expanding Brooklyn footprint with second ambulance

Freier, Freier Levine and Spiegel outside their ambulance.

 Brooklyn’s all-female EMT corps comprised of ultra-Orthodox Jewish women is expanding its reach in the Big Apple – providing life support services despite opposition from their male counterparts.

The Ezras Nashim – meaning “helping women” in Hebrew – estimates it has received 1,500 calls within a 2.7 square-mile-area in Borough Park, assisting with everything from pregnant women in labor to critical care transport since getting their ambulance license in 2020. 

The expansion comes after intense opposition from the traditional all-male EMT Hatzalah squad in the neighborhood, who petitioned against the Ezras Nashim’s first ambulance, the group said.

“I can’t necessarily say it’s going to any specific area — it’s going to go to a central location where we can serve several areas,” Freier, a 59-year-old paramedic, said – listing off neighborhoods like Ocean Parkway, Coney Island, Prospect Park, Crown Heights and Williamsburg.”

“As we’re able to monitor the call volume, and which communities need us more, that’s when we can officially expand,” she said.

To other ultra-Orthodox women, like Hinda Frankel, the 24/7 volunteer fleet is a godsend.

Frankel, 74, first encountered the Ezras Nashim when she sliced her finger open on a potato peeler, causing blood to “gush” everywhere, she told The Post. At that moment, her daughter Reisey encouraged her to call up the all-female fleet.

“I feel women understand women better — they just do,” Frankel, of Borough Park, said. “I felt safe. I felt taken care of. They were so compassionate.”

Freier, who was the ambulance driver on the day of the call, says it was just another day on the job (the judge is also the subject of the documentary “93Queen,” named for the radio code given to the EMT group from the FDNY).

“We handle calls from birth to death,” she said. “From someone giving birth after delivering a baby in a bathtub or on the floor, and we’ve also had women whose dying wish was to be transported in our ambulance.”

Word of the ladies’ fleet has since spread by word of mouth to other religious women outside of Judaism — Ezras Nashim also answers calls from Muslim and African women, among other populations who request their service.

The acquisition of a second ambulance wouldn’t have been believable just a few years ago, Freier said, as the EMTs’ application for their first ambulance was vehemently criticized by not only Hatzalah, but many rabbis as well, The Post previously reported.

A state agency denied Ezras Nashim’s application in 2019 – which the female EMTs say was influenced by Hatzalah members.

It wasn’t until NYS Emergency Medical Services Council approved the certificate 23-2 the following year that the corps achieved their victory: a $91,000 ambulance wrapped in calming hues of purples and white.

For $220,000, the second ambulance is a smaller van-style ambulance so they can deal with heavy traffic more effortlessly, Freier said.

The female fleet of EMTs are also ramping up their life-saving efforts through the group’s new Advanced Life Support certification – which allows them to monitor EKGs, administer medication through IVs, use heart monitors and more. 

The advanced skills – which required 18 months of training, versus the 180 hours required for EMT services – is a crucial step for women in the community, Freier said. 

It’s also a step she wouldn’t normally be allowed to take if she weren’t providing life-saving services.

“All the religious restrictions that we have are overwritten to save a life. If I wasn’t a trained first responder, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to go and drive the ambulance and treat patients because I’m not allowed to do it,” Freier said.

Freier’s daughter, Ezras Nashim COO Leah Freier Levine, told The Post she used Ezras Nashim to take her to the hospital for her last two births – and may just call them again when her third child is due next month.

“Despite all odds and despite the naysayers, we really grew so much,” Levine, 26, reflected. “It’s so important to me to help the women in my community but the work I do.” 

Levine dreams of expanding Ezras Nashim into a nationwide operation, noting she’s received requests to bring the service to Chicago, Los Angeles and Florida. 

“I’m getting calls and emails every day, … ‘we need you, we want you,’” she said.

“Starting with our first new expansion is like the first stepping stone and it’s showing you [that], yes, we can expand – and we’re going to do it.”