Rabbinical Students Make Passover Possible in New Zealand

As the search for missing Israeli backpacker Liat Tess-Okin continued around Queenstown, New Zealand, with the assistance of Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Mendel Goldstein, a team of rabbinical students from neighboring Australia arrived to take up a slew of Passover tasks. The students – whose visit was coordinated by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, the education arm of Chabad-Lubavitch – organized the Seders. “The students truly saved the day,” said Goldstein, “all of the Passover preparations had come to a sudden halt.” Some 500 people attended Seders in Dunedin, Canterbury, Nelson and Queenstown. Goldstein remains optimistic that Tess-Okin would be found “alive and well.”