Tuesday, August 21, 2018

A Chabad Shliach and a Sudden Tragedy in Goa India

ChaimKasnett.com: "On April 25, 2018, we received the devastating news that Chaim, the shining light in our family, the seventh of eight children, had drowned in the Arabian Sea while traveling in Goa, India. Four excruciating days later, we buried Chaim in Kfar Etzion, Israel and found ourselves making a promise that would have seemed nonsensical only a few days earlier.

We promised Chaim this: “We will build a community center, a Chabad House, a place where Jewish travelers from around the world like yourself can gather, a home away from home, in your name.”

We made that promise unanimously, without any doubt at all as to whether it was possible, because we knew it was the only way to make a world without Chaim in it ever again make any sense at all. 

Most of us, aside from two siblings living in Israel, were 8,000 miles away from Chaim when we learned what happened. We contacted both the American and Israeli embassies in India of course, but even before those calls, we reached out to Chabad. We needed someone we could trust to locate and identify Chaim and remain with him, and Chabad was the obvious choice.  There was a moment of panic when we realized that the Chabad house in Mumbai was not fully staffed during the tourist off-season, and that there was no Chabad house at all in that area of Goa itself. But then, within minutes, we were connected with Rabbi Simcha K, an American Chabad emissary (shaliach) who only a few days before had arrived in Goa with a completely different mission in mind."  Click Here to read more.

Building a"Beit Chaim" in memory of Chaim Kasnett. Click Here to Donate.

Created by Oren Rosenfeld, acclaimed photojournalist and film producer who was filming in Goa as the events unfolded.

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