For the past week, Chabad emissaries and volunteers in Nepal have been fielding frantic calls from Israel, assisting stranded tourists, and helping friends and relatives receive information and grapple with the loss of loved ones after an unexpected blizzard hit climbers trying to cross part of the Annapurna trail in Nepal, a country that attracts hordes of young Israelis every year.
More than 400 hikers were out last week when the sudden snowstorm caught up with them on Tuesday, stopping them in their tracks as they aimed to cross the Thorong La mountain pass and stranding many of them. To date, nearly 40 were reported killed, including four Israelis, and some 250 rescued, with a growing list of those missing.
Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz, who runs the Chabad House of Katmandu and the Chabad House of Pokhara in Nepal with his wife, Chani, has been working to connect Israelis still in the country to their families in Israel. Parents have been contacting the couple since the news broke, trying to get information on children known to be part of the climbing group. Many young Israelis were in Nepal over the Jewish High Holiday season.
“We are working round the clock,” says Chani Lifshitz, who has been with the wounded since the tragedy began. “Everyone needs help in some way. People are coming to us with absolutely nothing. They lost everything they own in the snow, so we are giving them everything they need: clothing, supplies, baggage, even spending money.”
“There is an (Israeli) Air Force delegation here to assist trauma victims,” Rabbi Lifshitz told the Israeli web site, Arutz Sheva, adding that he escorted injured Israelis to local hospitals and accompanied many to the airport to fly back to Israel for treatment. “People continue to flow to the area at all times, but there are still a number of missing persons, and as you know, we were all fearing for the life of one of them,” referring to missing hiker Michal Gili Cherkasky of Givatayim, Israel, whose body was found on Tuesday morning, nearly a week after the blizzard first struck.
The loss was a personal one. Chani Lifshitz earlier told Israel’s Channel 10 news of a meeting with Cherkasky before she left to travel the mountain pass. Cherkasky told her that she was hiking in memory of a friend who had died during a trek in the Himalayas back in 2001.
A Difficult Week
“Over Shabbat and the holiday (last Thursday and Friday), we made kiddush in the hospital for the injured, and had mixed feelings of joy and sorrow,” Rabbi Lifshitz recounted to Arutz Sheva. “[There is] joy for those who survived and sadness for those who did not. There were those who understood that if they stayed with their friends, they would die, and there were those who helped their friends, but were killed [in the process].”
He added that “we tried to celebrate the holiday, but there were such mixed feelings. There were people whom we saw on Yom Kippur and left the next day for the hike, with the intent to return on Simchat Torah.”
“Unfortunately, not all of them came back.”
The other Israelis who have been confirmed dead are Nadav Shoham of Mitzpe Hoshaya; Agam Luria, 23, of Kibbutz Yifat; and Lt. Tamar Ariel, 25, of Masuot Yitzchak.
The additional bodies identified were determined to be trekkers from Canada, India, Poland, Slovakia, Japan and Nepal.
Seven injured Israelis were flown to Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport on Saturday night. They are being treated at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem and Tel Hashomer Hospital, mostly for issues related to frostbite.
Those wishing to help in the relief effort can contact Chabad in Nepal here.
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