An ambulance honouring a special volunteer

Magen David Adom has inaugurated an ambulance in honour of late volunteer, IDF Staff Sergeant Yonatan “Yoni” Dean Chaim, who was killed in battle in Gaza on December 8, 2023.

Chaim was born Jonathan Dean Jr. and raised in a Christian family in Hilton, New York. In college, he developed an affinity for Judaism after becoming close to several Jewish friends and studying the Holocaust. He later converted to Judaism, added ‘Chaim’ to his last name (“life” in Hebrew), and immigrated to Israel in 2020.

 Chaim, 25 at the time of his death, volunteered with MDA and donated blood through the organisation. He is among almost 40 MDA personnel killed in the violence since October 7. While still processing his loss, a group of five of his close friends and MDA colleagues recently reunited to honour him by staffing the inaugural shift in the new ambulance dedicated in Chaim’s honour by an anonymous donor from Switzerland.

“Yoni always chose to give back,” said Avi Cohen, a fellow US-born MDA first responder who participated in the commemorative shift and a longtime friend of Chaim’s. “Volunteering was a big part of his life in the States too.”

After moving to Israel, Chaim studied at Tel Aviv University and earned a master’s degree in Disaster Management. As part of his degree, he was required to take a Magen David Adom first aid course. Building upon that experience, he completed a first aid certification program through MDA and volunteered aboard the organisation’s ambulances, saving lives.

Chaim told his colleagues on several occasions that upon his discharge from the military, he wanted to expand his volunteer work with MDA to continue saving lives.

Beyond saving lives at MDA, Chaim forged close friendships with fellow first responders. He was part of a group that consisted of MDA volunteers and staff Avi Cohen, Aviad Neuman, Itai Atias, Dror Wayne and Sahar Ovadia.

“MDA staff and volunteers form a bond with each other very quickly,” said Aviad. “We work together under high pressure and often in traumatic situations; we are all driven by the same thing – helping others.”

When his friends learned that an ambulance had been dedicated to MDA in Chaim’s memory, they knew that they had to unite and launch its first shift in his memory.

“It’s very fitting that we are doing this for Yonatan,” said Sahar, who is originally from Los Angeles, California and met Chaim in the same master’s program. “Yoni always had a smile on his face and brightened every room. He’s probably looking down on us and laughing, but I think this is the best way to commemorate him – by saving lives in an ambulance through which his spirit will live to help people 24/7.”

The last time they saw Chaim was on October 6, the day before Hamas’ brutal invasion.

“We didn’t know that this would be the last time. I would have talked to him more, sat with him a little longer,” Itai said. Dror added that about a month before his death, Chaim sent him a message and asked him how he could give more to help the community, through MDA.

At the request of his family, Chaim was laid to rest in the U.S. A memorial tree for him also stands in Israel.