British MDA supporter is first non-Israeli to sit on board of trustees

A British supporter of Israel’s emergency services organisation Magen David Adom has become the first non-Israeli ever elected to sit on its Israeli board of trustees.

Irving Carter, who is vice-president of MDA-UK, will serve on the MDA board in an honourary capacity, bestowed on him by Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev at a recent fundraising dinner.

MDA-UK chief executive Daniel Burger said Carter was “one of Magen David Adom’s greatest supporters,” adding: “This honour demonstrates how much MDA in Israel relies on Jewish communities around the world and how we here in the UK are making a very real, life-saving difference.”

Carter praised the “tremendous and brave medics and volunteers” of MDA, adding: “It is a great honour to be appointed. I am lucky enough to be able to do whatever I can to enable them to save lives. It is a privilege for me to be able to give to them.”

MDA was founded in 1930 but its logo was used as far back as 1899 in the Boer War, when an ambulance corps was founded by Ben Zion Aaron in Johannesburg, who was given permission for the Star of David to be used as its insignia, rather than the conventional red cross.