What’s 93Queen? It’s the internal ambulance code that the Fire Department of the City of New York assigned to Ezras Nashim, the Big Apple’s first all-volunteer female ambulance service. It’s also the name of a documentary describing how that service came to be.
93Queen is the first feature film by director/cinematographer Paula Eiselt, who obtained a degree in film from New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. The fact that she is Orthodox—living in Teaneck, New Jersey—eased Eiselt’s way into the large enclave of hasidic Jews in Boro Park, Brooklyn, where the documentary is set.
The surprise is that Ezras Nashim was launched by hasidic women deeply committed to their way of life, yet challenging one stricture: that Hatzalah, the world-renowned volunteer ambulance service, refuses to accept women as volunteers.
“When I saw an article about Hatzalah banning women, I was struck by two things,” said Eiselt. “That I grew up in the Five Towns, where we had a vibrant Hatzalah unit, and there were no women volunteers, and by my own blindness, that I hadn’t seen that.”
These hasidic women not only noticed, but acted. The exclusion of female volunteers, they point out, meant that in an emergency, women who, because of tzniut (modesty) had never held the hand of a man other than their husband’s, might be treated, while not fully dressed, by several men.
Hatzalah’s rationale for refusing female volunteers was not only the belief that women should stay home to raise their children, but that they’re “not strong enough or smart enough,” community leader Rachel (Ruchie) Freier asserts in the documentary.
When attempts to convince Hatzalah to change its policy failed, the women struck out on their own. Under Freier’s leadership, despite community opposition, they formed Ezras Nashim.
The women took their responsibilities seriously— training extensively and earning certification from New York State, while gaining respect from their own community little by little.
93Queen focuses primarily on Freier, a charming but indomitable mother of six, who graduated from law school at 40. In 2017, she became a civil court judge, making her almost certainly the first female hasidic elected official in the United States.
“It was women going up against a patriarchal system,” Eiselt said of Ezras Nashim. “Feminism isn’t one size fits all; women come to it from different places.”
The sheitl-wearing Freier might question the label “feminist,” but would agree the organization she helped found is stereotypebashing—as is 93Queen, the film. Not everyone, including Modern Orthodox Jews, is likely to think of hasidic women as savvy gamechangers, but these emergency medic volunteers certainly are.
One would be remiss not to mention Freier’s husband. He appears in only a few scenes of the film, but his beaming face at her induction as judge and his calling out, “My wife is a smart woman,” before one of Ezras Nashim’s meetings speak volumes. A real estate agent, David Freier is known as the “Marty Ginsburg of Boro Park”—a reference to the late extraordinarily supportive husband of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
About this inspiring and wellcrafted film, one may nitpick just a little. The chronology is unclear, unless one refers to other (newspaper) sources. As in old Hollywood movies, the admittedly elegant Freier wears a different outfit in every scene.
It might have been interesting for some viewers to learn of the double entendre of Ezras Nashim—which means literally “helping women,” but also refers to the women’s section of a shul.
This eye-opening and inspiring film has been finding multiple screenings in film festivals, synagogues, and other venues. 93Queen won the inaugural firstlook Pitch Prize at the 2017 Hot Docs Forum.
Five years in the making, the documentary doesn’t claim to be objective. It does not gloss over Freier’s flaws and even recounts an internal struggle that took place within the organization, but it is a labor of love about a superwoman and her trailblazing compatriots. See https:// www.93queen.com for information about screenings.