Milwaukee VA physician with ties to Israeli hospital laments war's devastating effects

Green, an emergency physician and former head of the Emergency Department at the Milwaukee VA Medical Center, has for decades split his time between Israel and Milwaukee: He and his wife studied medicine in Israel in the 1980s and lived there with their young children in the 1990s.

He spent the bulk of the early 2000s in Milwaukee. But about five years ago, the balance shifted as he was given the opportunity to help open the emergency department for Assuta Ashdod University Hospital, located roughly halfway between Tel Aviv and Gaza, bringing the knowledge he learned at the Milwaukee VA to Israel’s first new hospital in 40 years.

Currently, he spends about 75 percent of his time in Israel, coming to Milwaukee to mostly fill in during holidays and in the summer.

When the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7 occurred, Green would have normally been in Israel. However, he and his wife had returned to Milwaukee as she was undergoing treatment for an illness. With his daughter in Tel Aviv, Green saw war descend upon his other home.

“I heard about it from my daughter; it was like when 9/11 happened. I felt like it was a turning point, like life would never be the same,” he said. “What happened on Oct. 7 seems beyond the grasp of human comprehension. … It was a redefining moment in the history of humanity.”

While his daughter has come to Milwaukee since then, her significant other, a businessman and entrepreneur, has been called into military service — part of some 360,000 Israelis reservists who were immediately pressed into service, Green said.

Meanwhile, Green is in daily contact with his colleagues at Assuta Hospital, participating in Zoom calls and staying connected via chat groups.

“They are doing amazingly, getting better and better at trauma care,” he said, noting they are “constantly on alert for mass casualty incidents. When alarms go off, they can reorganize and regroup in 30 seconds. The commitment and dedication of the team is incomparable.”

One problem facing the hospital, Green said, is that many young staff members were pressed into service after the massive call up of reserves. “While the reservists try to ensure the future of the state, the medical team left behind is on constant alert for the next mass casualty incident,” he said.

But the hospital’s plight mirrors the rest of the country, Green said. “The war effort has consumed the nation. Business and commerce are crippled. … Those who are not serving are volunteering, preparing meals for soldiers and the displaced.”

He described fancy restaurants turned into mess halls and shopping malls converted into donation centers. Sirens denoting rocket attacks are omnipresent, and people must be prepared to duck into bomb shelters at a moment’s notice.

In recent years, Green has written articles for the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle about his dual life and the perspective it provides him. In a piece from 2021, he described working “elbow-to-elbow” in the emergency department with Arab colleagues — “high-fiving and hurling medical orders and wisecracks at each other for 12 hours at a time: sweating, crying and laughing together.”

“I feel that we go out of our way in the ED to affirm our respect and care for one another. We turn to face a common enemy, illness and injury, and we join forces. … I have seen proof that we can live together.”

He hopes to return to Israel in the coming months, when his wife’s condition has improved.

“It’s so distressing to watch from afar and not be able to do much,” he said, praising his colleagues at Assuta for being “so supportive of one another. They have an amazing sense of community and caring.”

Green said watching one of his two beloved homes become wracked by war has been almost surreal, comparing it to what he has read about World War II.

“I’m really sad that this has happened in my lifetime,” he said. “And the future is completely uncertain.”