15 Responses

1. Kol hakavod to the Shomrim, Hatzala, the 70th and 61st PCTS and all volunteers involved, this is what our community can do when it puts its minds and hearts together, a great thing to see

2. Kol Hakavod to all those people who assisted in the search!

3. don’t forget about the boro park, crown heighs, EF members that helped out!

4. It’s wonderful that the community came together and that the child was found. But the askanim need to do some pre-planning and community education in the event such a need arises again.

   From first-hand observation, many of the “civilian” volunteers seemed to assume that the emergency was a blanket heter for chillul yom tov – talking freely on their cell phones, driving back to their homes after the child was found, and so on.

   Much of that chillul yom tov was unrelated to the emergency, unnecessary and likely ossur. Before the next “all hands on deck” is issued the tzibur ought to do what it can to minimize this desecration.

5. A most beautiful kiddush HASHEM it was. May we always be so united.

6. MASKIM! the achdus that was shown was a sight to see!

   My brothers were the ones who started the circle with a few other boys… It kept growing from 5 to 10 … 15 and then 50 men , ALL singing and dancing to the words ” chasdei hashem ki lo zomnu!”

   bh the boy was found safe!

7. I am crying tears of joy at the end of this article, not only for Hashem’s kindness in having this child found safely and returned to his family, but the happiness of the other yidden who broke out into song and dance. This is the truth of a Jew’s heart.

8. Beautiful an united front for good. Everybody gains from such unity

9. Wow what a nice seen what a kidush hashem keep it up yidden

10. #3: — No one was forgotten. It was a multi-community effort. If you read the article CAREFULLY, it mentions “SHOMRIM” and does NOT indicate the representative community. Towards the end, it mentions the names of the individuals who initiated and coordinated the efforts.

11. i was right there by the command center when the boy was found. it was the most beautiful sight!!! pple from all circles, chasidish, sefardi, ashkenazi….alll came to together to join in the search effort and then singing and dancing when he was found! it was such achdus!!!! the shrieks and pure joy i heard from random pple (who didn’t even know the family) when he was found….mi kiamcha yisroel!!

12. #3 is that what your worried about no one is forgotten in hashems eyes. please take your comment somewhere else.

13. A truly amazing and most memorable evening. So many people were still in the street at 1AM it looked like mincha time on Shabbos. It felt like the whole community was involved, with many too happy to let the final joy of the evening end, and many too excited to sleep.

    When we heard about the search we were told volunteers were needed. We immediately rushed to the Shomrim command center truck one Avenue P around 11PM to help. Many others arrived to join the many already gathered.

    The people inside the Shomrim truck were busy on their cell phones, making copies, busy on laptops, reviewing maps, etc… Many private Hatzolah cars with flashing lights were constantly circling. Flyers with the missing boy’s name photo and description were being copied and handed out to the crowd. Several people arrived on bikes.

    There was a young man in front of the door to the truck dispatching searchers to points in every direction, strangely without any suggestion for how to search and what to check. No notes, and nothing systematic. It quickly became apparent that since no one official was addressing the crowd this young many stepped up to take charge. When asked, he said he was just a volunteer trying to help.

    Not one ‘official’ person came outside to manage the crowd. I understand that they were busy, they were searching since early evening, they probably didn’t want or need any help, but to ignore addressing the crowd was a major flaw in the response that can be improved upon for the future. No perception of command and control, no perception of any leadership.

    Rumors were running wild. People were frantically searching many back yards, streets, shuls and parks over and over again. People were running through the neighborhood calling out the missing boy’s name.

    A brief ‘We have everything under control’ or ‘Here is how you can help’ would have gone a long way. For this, the people in the Shomrim truck gave the appearance of being quite disorganized, panicked, frantic and unprofessional.

    By that late hour there was no NYPD presence that I witnessed either.

    The look of professionalism of Hatzolah on the other hand is to be commended.

    Later, we were ‘searching’ blocks away when a private Hatzolah car drove by and told us the boy was found on 212th street in the city. Hatzolah volunteers circled the streets to let everyone know the good news and that they could return home, to get everyone safely off the streets.

    As groups of people headed home over the next hour everyone whispered to each other ‘They found him!, They found him!’ as they passed each other by.

    Our great thanks to Hashem and to all who helped. A Pesah we will long remember.

14. To the commentator “Shoftim”; it sounds like you should be the last one to “judge”. The search started at about 6:00 p.m. You write that you “rushed” to the Shomrim Command Center at around 11:00 p.m., which is about four hours after the search started and the boy was found at appx. 11:30 p.m. This puts you on the scene of one of the most major and prolonged searches in recent history, for about 30 minutes. You later write that you were “searching blocks away”, so how long could you have possibly been by the Shomrim Command Center to feel that your qualified to make such a negative statement about Shomrim. Furthermore, why didn’t you ask someone in the Shomrim truck what you could do to help, or if everything was under control (as the outcome proves that it was). Your lack of information, your grammatical and spelling mistakes and hasty decision to asses the situation negatively, shows a lot of character on your part, thereby leaving you in no position to judge an organization as competent as Shomrim.

    Without the Shomrim members and Command Center on location, there would have been chaos and disorganization. There would have been no place to work, copy the child’s picture to get it out to the community, fax the child’s picture to the appropriate agencies, manage search grids, maintain central communication etc.

    A job well done by all those involved and please no negative comments to or about any of the volunteers who worked tirelessly to find this sweet boy who was lost in the biggest city in America.

15. #13. I dont know which planet misses you, but it sounds like where you come from, they don’t know the definition of “Hakoras Hatov”… Are you a disgruntled individual, perhaps someone who may have wanted to join the Shomrim or Hatzalah and was rejected? What a chip on your shoulder!! Yes, everyone was frantically busy on their phones… Did you stop for a moment to be “dan l’kaf z’chus” that during the period you mentioned (after 11pm) things were already materializing and that they may have just been waiting for confirmation of identity before they announced that it was over? Nah…. Dude, do yourself a favor: fly back to your planet and keep your foolish, insolent posts there…..