Mayor Gadi Yarkoni (center) with Soroka CEO Dr. Ehud Davidson and Tami Davidson Photo by Dror Bakhshi

Thane Rosenbaum and Melanie Franklin Lee Photo by Dror Bakhshi

Tirtza & Tal Brody, Caroline & Shlomo Freidfertig Photo by Dror Bakhshi

Rachel Heiser Scheinfeld, Ken Abramowitz and Dr. Ehud Davidson Photo by Dror Bakhshi

Dan Abrams Photo by Nina Boxer

SOROKA
After Losing Both His Legs
Yarkoni Stands For Election

BY TIM BOXER

O

N the last day of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in August 2014, Gadi Yarkoni, a former IDF member, was supervising the repair of an electricity tower damaged by Hamas that morning. The son of kibbutz pioneers, Gadi lived in Kibbutz Nirim, in the Eshkol region, a stone’s throw from the Gaza border.

At the last moment before the cease fire took effect, a final barrage of rocket fire hit the area. Gadi and two friends went down, critically wounded by shrapnel.

After laying unconscious for two weeks at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, he opened his eyes and was astonished to see that both his legs had been blown off.  And he was saddened to learn that his two childhood friends who worked with him had been killed.

Gadi endured five exhausting months of recuperation in Tel Aviv. During that difficult time, he desperately needed his wife and children, but they were an hour and a half away. They could come only twice a week to visit.

“My nine-year-old son who almost lost me,” Gadi said, “was frightful of the terror tunnels that were discovered close to our community. I couldn’t hug him and support him from far away.”

Gadi walked back into his house with artificial legs. Despite his tragic experiences, and mustering an endless source of optimism, he decided to run for mayor of the Eshkol Regional Council and improve the quality of life for his people. In June 2015 he stood for elections and won.

He realized that there was an urgent need for a rehab center in Beersheba, at the hospital that saved his life, so that the people of the Negev — Jew, Arab and Bedouin — won’t have to travel all the way up to Tel Aviv like he did. He needed to be in rehab twice a week but his responsibility as mayor didn’t always allow him to commute that often.

“We need a great rehab department at Soroka,” Gadi pleaded at the fourth annual American Friends of Soroka Medical Center dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York.

Ken Abramowitz, co-chair of the American Friends, said he was shocked to learn that Soroka, a strategic asset to Israel, lacked inpatient rehabilitation medicine.  As Soroka is essential to Israel’s plans to develop the Negev, he pledged that the American Friends will have this new facility in place as soon as possible.

That vision sparked applause by the dinner guests, including Dr. Mark Podwal; Zehavi Cohen, retired director of pediatric surgery at Soroka; Dan Abrams of ABC News who served as emcee; Israeli Consul General Ido Aharoni; Thane Rosenhbaum, NYU law professor; Norma Asnes; Howard and Riva Levy; Angela and Gary Retelny; Marshall and Therese Sonnenshine.