The Doctor is Out

“I always said when I got out of dental school, I was going to do some volunteer work in Israel.”

Retired dentist Robin Katzman has certainly fulfilled that goal, having made her 21st visit this past October from her home in Longwood to the Trudi Birger Clinic in Jerusalem as part of Dental Volunteers in Israel (DVI).

DVI was founded in 1980 by German-born Trudi Birger, a Holocaust survivor, microbiologist, and humanitarian who vowed to help others after surviving Nazi persecution in the 1940s. The DVI clinic was renamed the Trudi Birger Clinic in 2002 to honor its inspirational founder after she passed away that same year. 

Robin retired last year, selling the dental office she shared with her husband and fellow dentist, Dr. Ross Katzman. Long before retirement, she began volunteering at the Trudi Birger Clinic – which provides free dental care to underserved, special-needs, and at-risk youth – during the First Intifada. The need for such care was even greater during that time as the Israeli economy was suffering and many non-Israeli dentists were afraid to travel to the area to volunteer. Robin said she always felt safe and was available to go on short notice.

“When I first started going,” Robin remembers, “that was a very big lesson for me: that one person really does matter.”

The clinic is the only one of its kind in Israel – providing free dental services regardless of a patient’s racial, ethnic, or religious background. It’s also the only dental clinic where non-Israeli-licensed dentists can volunteer, a condition for which Trudi fought hard, Robin explains.

There is always an Israeli dentist on site and an Israeli staff that is at least bilingual, but dentists from all over the world volunteer at the clinic today. These volunteer dentists provide more than 11,000 treatments each year, and Robin is proud to have administered her share. The modern, full-service clinic can offer all procedures, with basic fillings being some of the most common. But the need for dental care in Israel is immense, especially when it comes to providing continuous care for those in economic distress.

“There are two dental schools in Israel but not enough preventative care education for the general populace,” says Robin.

Other issues include fluoridated water, which comes and goes in Israel based on the ever-changing political climate. More than half of children in Jerusalem live below poverty level, and in households with large families, germs are spread more easily in close quarters, diets may not be the healthiest, and toothbrushes are often shared.

“It’s just a different kind of society,” says Robin. “They care for each other beautifully. It’s not a question of love. It’s a question of education.”

And education is a big part of what DVI does. The organization’s Donald Berman Oral Health Education program focuses on teaching proper brushing, flossing, and diet. Each week, more than 70 children enter the program’s building and leave with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, and invaluable knowledge of how to maintain their oral health.

The needs of the youngest children used to be an even more critical focus for DVI, but Israel now has national insurance that covers dental care for children up to 16. The clinic has recently expanded from serving children between the ages of five and 18 to those between four and 26. Still, all patients must be referred to the clinic through Israel’s Social Welfare Service or shelters serving at-risk youth, the homeless, and victims of domestic violence. 

Other than those referrals, the clinic receives no government support. “It depends all on donations and some charitable trusts with renewable grants, but mostly donations,” Robin says.

Here in the United States, American Friends of DVI organizes fundraising efforts and recruits volunteers for the clinic. When DVI lost significant funding during the 2008 U.S. financial crisis, it had to rebuild its donor base. One generous American donor is Henry Schein Dental Supplies, which makes a major donation of supplies every year.

Many of the Trudi Birger Clinic’s young patients are seeing a dentist for the first time in their lives. Robin says the clinic administration also travels to Arab neighborhoods to  identify patients.

“Everybody is welcome,” she says. “A patient is a patient.”

Additionally, there has been an outreach program to educate more remote communities, such as a Bedoin village in the Negev.

Just a few years ago, DVI started a program to provide the elderly in Israel, including many Holocaust survivors, with free dentures. Although this population is outside the age range the clinic typically serves, DVI recognized the great need for such a service and was able to secure funding from private foundations. To avoid interfering with DVI’s daily work with children, the free-dentures program runs on Wednesdays during hours when the clinic is otherwise closed.

During Robin’s travels to Israel, she usually vacations and visits friends for a week, works at the clinic for a week, and stays in Israel for another week.

“If I’m alone, I’ll stay mostly in Jerusalem,” she says. “I love to breathe the air there, wander the streets and neighborhoods, and do the things tourists do.”

She often goes to Tel Aviv, as well, and ventures out farther when her family joins her. During her most-recent visit, Robin was joined by her husband, son, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren.

The entire Katzman family – including Robin’s parents, Harry and Rhea Rein – all live in Central Florida. The Katzmans are members of Temple Israel, and Robin has had “every volunteer job there,” she quips.

She has one other volunteer job, and it’s a big one – although Robin is humble about her role. Eight years ago, she became the sole provider of children’s dental care at Grace Medical Home, a nonprofit clinic in Orlando that is one of the main continuous care providers for Orange County’s poor and uninsured residents. Since Grace Medical didn’t have a dental clinic, Robin reached out to offer her services at her own dental office, which she did until her retirement last year.

“I was really proud to be part of it and felt a really big loss when I couldn’t do it,” says Robin.

Fortunately, Grace Medical recently moved into a new facility, complete with a dental clinic, where Robin is back seeing patients twice a month along with other dentists now on staff. While Grace Medical Home has practitioners and patients of all faiths, it is a Christian nonprofit, a designation that has never bothered Robin.

“You shouldn’t be intimidated being Jewish and working for a Christian organization,” Robin says. “They have a real appreciation of the value you’re providing to them. They see the whole picture. It was incredibly gratifying for my staff to serve people who couldn’t go somewhere else for help.”

Locally and abroad, Robin has found incredible ways to help the people who need it most.