Chabad Shluchim Rally to Assist Families and Ensure Jewish Dignity in Wake of Fatal Bowie Plane Crash

by CrownHeights.info

Late Saturday night, June 20th, a single-engine Piper PA-28 Cherokee carrying three young men went down in a wooded area near a residential neighborhood in Bowie, Maryland, killing all three aboard. In the hours and days that followed, a network of Chabad shluchim under the auspices of Chabad of Maryland and Rabbi Shmuel Kaplan together with partner organizations worked quietly — and urgently — to ensure the victims received the dignity, respect, and Jewish care that halacha demands.

At approximately 11:15 p.m., the small training aircraft departed Ocean City, New Jersey, bound for Montgomery County Air Park in Gaithersburg, Maryland. About fifteen minutes into the flight, an iPhone crash alert was received by Prince George’s County Public Safety Communications, indicating a crash had occurred near the junction of routes 450 and 301 in the Bowie area. A massive multi-agency ground and aerial search was launched involving a range of emergency responders. The wreckage was not located until approximately 3:45 a.m., when friends from the flight school discovered the plane’s remains — debris spread across 100 feet — in a wooded area behind a townhome community and playground on Scarlet Oak Court.

Later, Maryland State Police confirmed the identities of the three victims: Yoav Bomrind, 26, of Israel, who was piloting the aircraft; David Rabinovitz, 19, of Israel; and Elad Neidik, 20, a Canadian citizen originally born in Israel, and a member of the Chabad community in Ontario under the Shliach Rabbi Chezky Deren. All three were pronounced deceased at the scene.

Chabad on the Ground: Rabbi Eli Baron of Chabad of Bowie

The first Chabad response came from Rabbi Eliyahu (Eli) Baron, the shliach at Chabad of Bowie.

Rabbi Baron’ phone rang at 9:30am with a call from Rabbi Shlomo Beitch, director of the Chabad Israeli Center of Rockville, notifying Rabbi Baron of the plane crash, and asking him to respond.

“It’s pretty difficult. It’s my first experience with something like this,” Rabbi Baron told WUSA9. “But that’s what we Chabaf rabbis are here for, anything and everything.”

At the site, Rabbi Baron had the opportunity to say the Tefillos for the end of life, initially from a distance, but with the help of Rabbi Nechemia Mond, a chaplain with the Maryland state police, he was ultimately able to approach.

Later in the day, Misaskim and Yanky Landa of Zaka USA drove in from Lakewood and were able to begin their holy work of Kavod Hames at the crash site.

Rabbi Baron, who described himself as the on-the-ground person coordinating in Bowie, worked in close coordination with the broader Chabad Maryland infrastructure to ensure nothing was overlooked.

“We were able to say some prayers and have a dignified Jewish ritual transfer of the bodies from the site,  with recital of some psalm and last rites,” Rabbi Baron explained to the media. He also worked behind the scenes with local officials to expedite the opening of the site for the holy work of Misaskim.

Behind the scenes, the maestro who coordinated across organizations and agencies was Rabbi Shlomo Beitch, the director of the Chabad Israeli Center of Rockville. Liaising between community organizations, authorities, and families as the situation unfolded, Rabbi Beitch ensured Jewish communal resources were brought to bear swiftly and respectfully in the time of crisis.

One of the most critical halachic concerns in any case of sudden or traumatic death is ensuring that the bodies of Jewish niftarim are not subjected to an autopsy, which is prohibited by Jewish law except in extreme circumstances.

In this case, that crucial role was fulfilled by Rabbi Ariel Sadwin, Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic region of Agudath Israel of America and director of the Agudath Israel of Maryland. Rabbi Sadwin engaged with the relevant officials to ensure that the bodies of the three victims — including the two Israeli nationals whose remains would need to be returned to Israel — were treated with the full dignity required by Jewish law and not subjected to unnecessary post-mortem procedures.

Rabbi Sadwin has spent nearly two decades forging relationships with the Maryland medical examiner’s office and state officials to ensure that Jewish decedents are handled in accordance with halacha.

Joining the effort on the ground were volunteers from ZAKA USA, led by Yanky Landau, and the Misaskim organization from Baltimore, Maryland, who worked for hours at the crash site to collect all findings with due respect for the deceased.

“Immediately upon receiving the report, we arrived at the scene and began a joint operation with volunteers from the Misaskim organization and the local authorities,” Landau said in a statement. “For many long hours, we worked with due respect for the niftarim, collecting all findings and handling the difficult scene.”

Landau specifically singled out Rabbi Matisyahu Melnick for his exceptional efforts: “I would like to especially thank Ba’al Chessed Rabbi Matisyahu Melnick, who accompanied the handling of the incident from its inception, provided much assistance with all the authorities and various bodies, and acted with dedication and determination to bring about a swift conclusion to the scene’s handling and the release of the victims’ bodies as soon as possible, all while maintaining respect for Kavod Hameis and great sensitivity to the families.”

The news of the passing of Elad Neidik, the 20-year-old passenger from Canada, was felt acutely in the Ontario Jewish community where he had grown up. His rabbi and mentor, Rabbi Chezky Deren of Chabad of Maple in Ontario, spoke movingly about the young man he had watched mature.

“It was very rare to find someone like him, in today’s day and age, to be so dedicated to his family, so dedicated to the community, to have such a volunteer, kind spirit,” Rabbi Deren told 7News/WJLA. “He was very, very unique in that sense. And to me, it was the absolute greatest honor to have been able to mentor him, watch him grow so incredibly.”

Rabbi Deren noted that Elad had been pursuing his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot, and had enrolled in flight school in the D.C. area. Just the weekend before the tragedy, he had visited his home community in Ontario, excitedly sharing news of his aviation progress.

“Just last weekend, actually, he was here visiting and he shared with us about the hours of flight time that he had. He already did more than a hundred landings,” Rabbi Deren recalled.

The rabbi reflected on the message he believed Elad would want to leave with those who knew him: “Show your love for your family. Do another mitzvah, do another act of kindness.”