Frum Communities Bond in Search Effort

Fittingly for a rabbi known for promoting inter-group cooperation, the search for Zev Segal drew upward of 300 volunteers — Lubavitcher and Satmar hasidim, Modern Orthodox and haredim, as well as members of the non-Orthodox Jewish and general communities.

“It is not every day we have a major collaboration between all our groups,” said Benyomin Lifshitz, a member of the Crown Heights Shromrim Patrol, a neighborhood watch group in Brooklyn. “That feeling alone of coming together gave us a big sense of hope. Given that we all have our different sects and our own politics, coming together to help was very important.”

When the 91-year-old Segal was reported missing March 5, the Hatzoloh ambulance corps took charge of the search effort and moved its mobile command post from its Flatbush headquarters to a Jersey City parking lot. By evening, members of Shomrim had joined them to canvass unfamiliar neighborhoods in the dark.

“We brought in eight or nine cars with 25 or 30 members, and they gave us maps with highlighted grids,” Lifshitz said.

Methodically, the volunteers patrolled the streets, looking for the missing green sedan with the New York license plates. At daybreak, some of the hunters headed for work and were replaced by a second shift.

The search ended March 6 when State Police spotted Segal’s car submerged in the Hackensack River.

In and outside the Orthodox community, many marveled at the way its members were able to mobilize.

“When people die, there is the habit in the Orthodox community of people calling each other and e-mailing ‘Did you hear?’” said Norman Samuels, provost emeritus at Rutgers University and president of the NJJN board of trustees. “I think that network kicked in. Everybody who knew him or knew about him felt an obligation to call one another.”

On the morning of March 5 Stephen Flatow, a member of the Orthodox community in West Orange, received an e-mail describing the rabbi’s car and appealing for help. As he headed to work in Jersey City, Flatow heard about Segal’s disappearance on JM in the AM, the radio show hosted by the rabbi’s son, Nachum. Flatow spent some time looking for the missing Mercury en route to his office.

He had a premonition.

“I thought he might have driven into the Hackensack River,” Flatow said. “It is a terrible, desolate, inhospitable area. I had a terrible feeling this is what might have happened.”

Flatow had met Segal at the Hebrew Youth Academy in the late 1970s. The rabbi left him with a lasting impression.

“I remember he was a tall, dignified-looking guy who looked like a rabbi, ramrod straight with a black hat slightly at an angle. He was very impressive,” Flatow said.

This was from from the article “Leading Orthodox rabbi dies in automobile crash”