Chabad Joins Search for 2 Israelis Missing After Catastrophic Nepal Floods

Chani Lifshitz: “We are checking every report, every name, every location and every possible lead.”

By Shula Rosen

Chabad of Nepal has launched a relief effort and is helping search for missing Israelis and other Jewish travelers after catastrophic flooding killed more than 1,000 people and left another 4,400 unaccounted for across Nepal.

Two Israelis, including a 60-year-old man, are among those missing, along with some 30 Jewish visitors and local residents, Chani Lifshitz, co-director of Chabad of Nepal with her husband, Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz, said.

The flooding began Aug. 26 along the Nepal-China border and affected towns and cities as far as 45 miles away.

Entire villages were swept away, dozens of suspension bridges were destroyed and roads connecting Kathmandu with the northern border were severed. Major regional hydropower projects were also badly damaged.

The disaster’s precise cause remains under investigation. Preliminary findings indicate a glacier collapsed, causing an avalanche that dammed a river near the Tibetan border. The natural barrier later gave way, releasing mud, boulders and water downstream.

With damaged infrastructure disrupting communications and leaving some areas accessible only by air, the Lifshitzes have been gathering information, working with officials and rescue teams and responding to relatives seeking information about missing travelers.

“We are in contact with the families, local communities and officials on the ground, trying to piece together every detail,” Chani Lifshitz told Chabad.org. “We are checking every report, every name, every location and every possible lead.”

Chabad of Nepal has dispatched an aid team and is assembling food, medicine and essential equipment, as well as professional assistance for deployment when affected areas become accessible.

The Lifshitzes, who have decades of experience assisting Israeli tourists stranded or injured in Nepal, had been preparing to host hundreds of Israeli backpackers for Rosh Hashanah meals and prayers when the flooding occurred.

Nepali authorities are burying dozens of victims each day in mass graves as identification remains difficult.

“We continue to do everything we can to ensure that every person has a name and every family receives an answer,” Chani Lifshitz said.

“And we continue to pray for the living, for the missing and for the families still waiting, Jews and non-Jews. We pray that even amid all this darkness, some good news will yet emerge.”