In the Israeli city of Haifa, sometime in the the next year, someone will pick up a phone and call for help, and the ambulance that comes to their aid will be one that was donated by an Aventura woman named Ilsa Rooz.

On Saturday, Rooz, 97, donated her 10th ambulance to Magen David Adom, the Israeli equivalent of the The American Red Cross, during the Saturday morning Shabbat service held at the Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus in North Miami Beach, just outside Aventura.

Rooz made the donation in the name of Rabbi Edwin Farber, the rabbi at Beth Torah, who presided over the service. It was the first such donation made in the name of a living rabbi.

``It's an incredible honor because this has such a direct consequence of literally saving lives in Israel,'' Farber said.

Magen David Adom, which means The Red Star of David in Hebrew, runs all ambulances, emergency responses and most blood bank services in Israel. The organization is funded through private donations, including many that are provided by its partner in the United States, The American Friends of Magen David Adom, which helped organize the event on Saturday.

``The donations are very critical,'' said Paul Hirschson, deputy consul general of Israel. ``It's saving lives, that's the bottom line.''

Rooz sees the ambulances as a direct, worthwhile way to help the people of Israel, since they respond to any call, be it an illness, car accident or terrorist attack.

``The ambulances are always there,'' she said.

Rooz, a native of what is now the Czech Republic, and self-described ``snow bird'' has been going back and forth between Chicago and Aventura for about 30 years. Her late husband, Walter Rooz, started donating the ambulances about 20 years ago. She continued to do so after his death in 1997.

Over the years, she has heard stories about people who have been helped by the ambulances she has donated. Once, a mother gave birth to a child in one. Another time, she heard one of her ambulances rushed an American tourist to the hospital, and the tourist survived.

Last year, during the Gaza War, several Hamas-fired rockets landed in the the Israeli city of Ashod. One killed a mother of four on Dec. 28, according to the Jerusalem Post. Another landed in the city on Jan. 2. A newspaper photo from that day shows an ambulance that Rooz donated at the scene. In the photo, the message ``Presented to the People of Israel in memory of Walter Rooz by Isla Rooz, Aventura FL, USA'' is painted in blue letters on the driver-side door.

Ambulances, she noted, help anyone, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. The MDA also has a working relationship with the Palestinian Red Crescent, the Palestinian version of The Red Cross, which Rooz said is ``as it should be.''

Rooz received the Maimonides Award in recognition of her donation from Farber and synagogue president Brian Ketter on Saturday. When someone offered to help her up the stairs, she refused, and walked up to the podium by herself.

In an interview, Farber said that saving a life is considered paramount in the Jewish faith, and that Rooz's efforts should serve as an example. ``She is a woman in her 90s, and she hasn't given up affecting the world in a positive way,'' he said. ``That demonstrates that the performance of good deeds is a lifetime pursuit.''