Nefesh B'Nefesh Chair and co-Founder Tony Gelbart speaks to Israel National News from the Nefesh B'Nefesh Medex 2023 conference which took place this week. “I can tell you it's an amazing event that we're having here,” he says. “Many doctors and many professionals in the medical field are here getting their licensing, they're getting introductions to actual jobs for many of the medical hospitals in Israel.” This year’s conference has a record turnout, with many new immigrants to Israel being doctors. “They're going to the Negev and the Galilee, which is a very important part of our mission this time because there’s a critical shortage of doctors,” he says. He explains that Israel is in dire needs of more medical professionals. “There’s a shortage of doctors and medical professionals in Israel. Years ago the great aliyah from Russia brought many doctors that are now retiring. There wasn’t enough medical schools in Israel so it’s a critical issue right now to bring doctors and all medical professionals to Israel,” he says. “We're definitely increasing the amount of people working in the entire medical field. We’re not just talking about doctors, we're talking about everybody in the medical field and it's amazing and we're going to double or triple the the amount this year,” he adds. Dr. Sefi Mendelovich, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Health, also speaks to Israel National News from the conference. "I'm here with a big delegation from the Ministry of Health and we have several hats here as the Ministry of Health,” he says. “The first hat is just being very efficient and helping physicians, nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists while they are making aliyah. The program is that when they are landing in Israel they’ll already have their certifications and can start immediately working in their profession. “The other thing as the Ministry of Health is to support this very important process. It's a combination of both Zionism and also Israel has a profound need of all of these occupations and here in the Ministry of Health, facing these issues in Israel, we are encouraging these people to to make aliyah.” He describes a feeling of excitement seeing all the medical professionals making aliyah at the conference. “People are really excited here. There is a sense in the air, people who were waiting all their lives to do aliyah and here they are feeling it's almost at the end of the process,” he says. “It's really exciting and it's very efficient and we'd like to thank Nefesh B'Nefesh which we had a very good connection with. They’re doing a great job.” We spoke with two participants at NBN MedEx 2023 as well - Osnat Shmueli and Dina Kornblau. Watch:
