![\"Palestinians](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/554512.jpeg\"\/)
Palestinians man a burning barricade on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem’s Old City as they fight violent clashes with Israeli Border Police following the second Friday noon prayers in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan during the Second Intifada. December 8, 2000. (credit: REUTERS)<\/p>\n
The shooting begins as the schoolchildren are walking home from school. Shimon arrives just in time to push a mother out of the line of fire. In saving her, Shimon takes three bullets in the chest and stomach.<\/p>\n
There are videos of the Magen David Adom medics trying to revive him. They don\u2019t succeed. They contact Prof. Avi Rivkind, head of the Shock Trauma Center at Hadassah Ein Kerem and recipient of this year\u2019s Israel Prize. He is already waiting for the wounded man. \u201cBring him dead or alive,\u201d Rivkind insists.<\/p>\n
In the trauma room, covered in a body bag, Shimon is hoisted onto the table. He has bullet holes in his heart and stomach. He is marked DOA \u2013 dead on arrival.<\/p>\n
On this Independence Day, even as Avi Rivkind receives the recognition for his life\u2019s work, he remembers as clearly as yesterday the moment he ordered his astounded staff to bring the curly-haired soldier back to life.<\/p>\n
Everyone in the trauma room is shocked. Israel\u2019s first traumatologist, who teaches medical students about trauma, Rivkind knows better than to try to bring back a penetrating trauma patient with no pulse.<\/p>\n
He calls it not a sixth sense but a moment of heavenly inspiration. He knows the answer to the question that isn\u2019t in the textbooks. Vast units of blood are poured into Shimon\u2019s heart. The cardiothoracic surgeon sews one bullet hole, and then finds another and repairs that. He massages the heart until he feels the first beat. It begins to pump.<\/p>\n
In our country, where no one is shy about expressing opinions, a colleague sneers, \u201cSo now what have you done, Rivkind? He\u2019s a vegetable. You should have let him go.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Beersheba, Rachel Ohana is still cooking when she hears a car pull up outside her apartment block, the doors opening, then slamming shut. From the kitchen window, she sees her husband, Meir, a policeman, surrounded by higher-ranking police officers.<\/p>\n
Something in their body language frightens her. All she can think of is that internal affairs has found some flaw in her husband\u2019s performance. But the policemen have brought far worse news. Shimon is in grave condition in Jerusalem. She remembers her words \u201cI pity his poor mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rachel unties her apron and tosses the meat into the freezer. The drive from Beersheba to Jerusalem feels endless.<\/p>\n
In Jerusalem, colleagues have insisted that Rivkind share Shimon\u2019s poor odds of recovery with his parents. They step in and tell her that according to statistics, Shimon has a 0.1% chance of recovery. Oddly, the tall trauma surgeon named Avi Rivkind shakes his head. \u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d he says. \u201cHe will wake up, and I will dance at Shimon\u2019s wedding.\u201d One day goes by, and then the next. Nonetheless, Prof. Rivkind continues to tell Rachel and Meir that they shouldn\u2019t worry.<\/p>\n
Against every medical expectation<\/p>\n
Seventeen motionless days pass. And then suddenly, on day 18, Shimon\u2019s eyes flutter, and he wakes up. Rachel is giddy with joy.<\/p>\n
The celebratory moment isn\u2019t complete. Shimon refuses to eat. Rachel knows that her pampered youngest is a fussy eater.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s his favorite food?\u201d Rivkind asks.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s a little embarrassed. Rachel says, \u201cMy meatballs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivkind orders her to go home to Beersheba and make meatballs. On the way home from Jerusalem, she phones her neighbor to take the ground meat out of the freezer.<\/p>\n
All night, she shapes meatballs into egg-sized balls and cooks them in her signature sauce. She returns to Jerusalem in the early morning with an aluminum pot redolent with the aroma of coriander, garlic, cumin, and mint.<\/p>\n
Rachel knows her meatballs are not on the diet of the average recovering invalid. Now she gives Rivkind orders. \u201cThese are Moroccan meatballs, not dainty Swedish meatballs. Stand by my side while I feed him.\u201d The surgeon agrees. Shimon gobbles down the first meatball, and then another. She pauses, nervous about going further. Shimon looks unhappy. \u201cHe\u2019s still hungry!\u201d bellows Rivkind. \u201cGive him more!\u201d<\/p>\n
And so she does, until at last, Shimon smiles, satisfied.<\/p>\n
On November 23, bolstered by medical care and a daily diet of Moroccan meatballs, Shimon and his parents walk out of the hospital.<\/p>\n
He still needs physical, cognitive, and occupational therapy.<\/p>\n
He falls in love with Aviyah, one of the aides.<\/p>\n
Soon after, in a wedding hall in Beersheba, Avi Rivkind walks Shimon Ohana down the aisle and dances with the groom. I was there to see it. Rivkind is later the sandak, holding their baby, carefully watching the mohel perform the circumcision, when Shimon and Aviyah\u2019s son Uri Meir is born.<\/p>\n
Rivkind isn\u2019t one of those doctors who wear a kippah, but he is a descendant of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotsk. \u201cWe believe that at the cusp of life and death, no patient wants us to \u2018let him go,\u2019\u201d says Rivkind. \u201cThat\u2019s the dictum that has informed my life\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The life\u2019s work that won him the 2026 Israel Prize.<\/p>\n
Rivkind is the only child of Holocaust survivor parents. Both his parents were saved by Righteous Gentiles. That also informs his life, he says.<\/p>\n
And Shimon\u2019s revival? \u201cOf course, it\u2019s a miracle,\u201d Rivkind says, surprised at the question. \u201cA God moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Rachel Ohana hears that Rivkind would be awarded the Israel Prize, she phones him and fills his ears with a cornucopia of blessings. She also has news to report. Her grandson Uri Meir, like his dad, is serving in the Border Police, protecting Israel.<\/p>\n