The following is via OnlySimchas.com:
A 64-year-old man who made Aliyah to Israel left to visit Yemen three months ago and has since gone missing. The family of the Ashkelon resident is worried that he may have been captured by ISIS.
The man received the status of a prisoner of Zion after he was imprisoned by Yemini authorities for hanging an Israeli flag outside his home.
“I’m very concerned about him,” his daughter said. “If he had arrived there, I believe he would’ve contacted us. I’m very much afraid he was captured by ISIS. Unfortunately, no one is helping us.”
Two of the man’s daughters live in Israel while the other two live in London. Since his aliyah in 1995, he has been back to Yemen four times using his foreign passport.
His most recent visit in 2013 led to him being detained for three months on suspicion of spying for Israel. He was later released by authorities who freed all detainees when rebels tried to take over the city.
The man went back to Yemen to bring his brother to Israel. “We tried to convince him not to go but it didn’t help,” his daughter said. “He told me not to worry because he would only be there for a few days.”
On June 1 the man left for Jordan, but was unable to find a connecting flight to his destination. When he spoke to his family the next day he told them three Saudis who were heading to Yemen had agreed to take him.
“I asked him how much money will it cost, and he said they were taking him for free,” his daughter said. “That’s when I started suspecting. Why are strangers not taking money? He didn’t listen to me, and I don’t know what has happened to him since. After a few weeks, we made inquiries and we were told he didn’t make it there. I contacted someone in Jordan and I was told he left Jordan, but they didn’t know where he went.”
After contacting the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem the family was told that because Israel has no diplomatic relations with Yemen they could not be of help. The family also learned that on his last trip to Yemen he was summoned for questioning and was told by security officials not to come back to Yemen.
“No one is helping us and I’m depressed,” the daughter said. “My father knows that country like the palm of his hand, and that’s why he wasn’t afraid to go. I think he left Jordan but I don’t think he made it (to Yemen). We were offered to pay money to a third party who would try to search for my father, but we have no money to pay.”
(Source: OnlySimchas.com)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
7 Responses
Oy. The pain must be unbearable. M’rubim tzarchei amcha. Oy! The distress. The utter depression. The worry. The loss. HaShem yi’racheim.
He goes into a country that is at war with Israel, and flies an Israeli flag, and expects what to happen?
אַחֵינוּ כָּל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל, הַנְּתוּנִים בְּצָרָה וּבַשִּׁבְיָה, הָעוֹמְדִים בֵּין בַּיָּם וּבֵין בַּיַּבָּשָׁה, הַמָּקוֹם יְרַחֵם עֲלֵיהֶם, וְיוֹצִיאֵם מִצָּרָה לִרְוָחָה, וּמֵאֲפֵלָה לְאוֹרָה, וּמִשִּׁעְבּוּד לִגְאֻלָּה, הַשְׁתָּא בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב.
May we have his name for davening?
Some basic common sense missing in this story.
Hashem Yirachem.
While of course we must be mispallel for him, lets remind ourselves the words of Ramchal in mesilas yisharim in Perek 9 regarding what is proper bitachon. And cholila this should not be a kitrug but we need to remember that Hashem demands that we take care of ourselves and do NOT throw caution tot he wind and claim that we are baalei emuna. This is NOT the ratzon of Hashem.
(quickly translated)
“Know that there is fear and there is fear. There is worthy fear and foolish fear. There is bitachon and there is foolishness. The Creator Baruch Hu made a man a baal sechel (intelligent) to go about his way properly and in a good path and guard himself from dangers and objects that might harm him, things that were created to punish rishaim. One who wishes to avoid intelligence and ignore guarding himself and wishes to give himself up to danger is not being a Bitachon rather Holeilus (foolish frivolity) and he is in that itself a sinner, in that which he does not in accordance with the wishes of Hashem who desires that a person take care of himself. Therefore in addition to the natural danger that he finds himself in he has also accountable in sin for having actively placed himself in mortal danger…”
May Hashem Return him Gezunte Heit to his family.
YJF, can you use the saychel haShem gave you and do the lecture after he’s been found and returned home safely?
א ביסל רחמנות אויף א איד