ZAKA today offers professional and highly-skilled volunteer services in the areas of emergency response, search and rescue, accident prevention and assistance in international disasters.

Specialist search and rescue units have been established over the years including, among others, a Motorcycle unit, K9 unit, Jeep unit, ATV unit, Jet-ski unit and Divers unit. In all cases, these units consist of highly trained volunteers, each a specialist in their own field,  bringing their skills and dedication to the organization and ensuring the fastest and most professional response to the situation.

In Israel, ZAKA has become part of the consensus, regularly ranked the most esteemed and respected organization after the IDF. ZAKA offers a framework for thousands of ultra-Orthodox (haredi) volunteers, who do not typically serve in the military, to contribute to society in a meaningful way, providing an essential service within the most professional and disciplined framework.

ZAKA has also created a bridge between the various sectors in Israeli society, with the values of volunteerism and dedication as the connecting forces. ZAKA volunteers include among their ranks Jews, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and Moslem; young and old; men and women; religious and secular. ZAKA provides assistance to all, regardless of religion, race or creed – because man is made in the divine image.

In addition to these units, ZAKA has established the ZAKA International Rescue Unit, with hundreds of volunteers in Israel and around the world, who are ready, equipped and able to respond in the fastest time to a mass casualty incident or terror attack, wherever it occurs. In 2005, ZAKA received United Nations recognition as an international humanitarian volunteer organization. ZAKA has since become a model for emergency services around the world, sharing best practices and serving as a light unto the nations in the darkest of times.

Founded in 1995, ZAKA is Israel’s dominant non-governmental rescue and recovery organization, with over 3,000 volunteers deployed around the country, on call 24/7 to respond to any terror attack, disaster or accident immediately, professionally and with the necessary equipment. ZAKA, a civilian volunteer organization with sole responsibility in Israel for dealing with incidents of unnatural death, works in close cooperation with all the emergency services and security forces.

Honoring the dead  is considered an act of Chesed Shel Emes (true virtue). In Judaism, this is considered the greatest mitzva (good deed) that can be performed, because the recipient has no way of repaying the kindness.

ZAKA (the Hebrew acronym for Disaster Victim Identification) became an official volunteer organization in 1995 and has grown organically over the last two decades, finding the best solutions to the operational needs as the scope of the volunteering work increases.

ZAKA today offers professional and highly-skilled volunteer services in the areas of emergency response, search and rescue, accident prevention and assistance in international disasters.

Specialist search and rescue units have been established over the years including, among others, a Motorcycle unit, k9 unit, Jeep unit, ATV unit, Jet-ski unit and Divers unit. In all cases, these units consist of highly trained volunteers, each a specialist in their own field,  bringing their skills and dedication to the organization and ensuring the fastest and most professional response to the situation.

In Israel, ZAKA has become part of the consensus, regularly ranked the most esteemed and respected organization after the IDF. ZAKA offers a framework for thousands of ultra-Orthodox (haredi) volunteers, who do not typically serve in the military, to contribute to society in a meaningful way, providing an essential service within the most professional and disciplined framework.

ZAKA has also created a bridge between the various sectors in Israeli society, with the values of volunteerism and dedication as the connecting forces. ZAKA volunteers include among their ranks Jews, Christians, Druze, Bedouin and Moslem; young and old; men and women; religious and secular. ZAKA provides assistance to all, regardless of religion, race or creed – because man is made in the divine image.

In addition to these units, ZAKA has established the ZAKA International Rescue Unit, with hundreds of volunteers in Israel and around the world, who are ready, equipped and able to respond in the fastest time to a mass casualty incident or terror attack, wherever it occurs. In 2005, ZAKA received United Nations recognition as an international humanitarian volunteer organization. ZAKA has since become a model for emergency services around the world, sharing best practices and serving as a light unto the nations in the darkest of times.

ZAKA’s home is in Israel, but they operate all over the world, wherever they are needed.  The Jerusalem-based ZAKA International Rescue Unit operates a specially trained team of volunteer paramedics and search and rescue professionals who are on call 24/7, ready to respond in the fastest possible time to major international mass casualty incidents, wherever they may occur. Under the direction of Chief Operations Officer Mati Goldstein, the ZAKA International Rescue Unit works in close cooperation with Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the IDF and other government bodies.

ZAKA’s assistance at major international terror attacks (eg Mombasa, Istanbul and Taba) and natural disasters (eg the tsunami and the New Orleans Katrina hurricane) led the United Nations in 2005 to recognize ZAKA as an international volunteer humanitarian organization (one of only three Israeli organizations to hold this status).