Israeli man goes missing during Ukraine pilgrimage

An Israeli man has been reported missing in Ukraine during the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to Uman, where Rabbi Nachman, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement, is buried.

Amir Ohana, 28, a father of three from Bat Yam, has not been seen since Tuesday, the second day of the holiday, which marks the Jewish new year.

The last time anyone heard from Ohana, he was planning to walk to Rabbi Nachman’s grave and seek solitude in the surrounding forests, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. His personal effects were found in the room where he was staying in Uman.

Ukrainian security forces were working with Israeli police to organize searches, while local authorities sent divers to probe the nearby Umanka River, ruling out a death by drowning. Forces were also combing forests and fields to locate the missing man, who was said to suffer from a serious medical condition.

Ohana’s wife made an impassioned plea for his safe return on their joint Facebook page, the ultra-Orthodox news site Haredim 10 reported.

“Amir, my love, my heart goes out to you in prayer. Come back to me,” she wrote, and asked that people pray on his behalf. “Father, have mercy on me, without him I have no life.”

A Foreign Ministry representative told Channel 2 that Israeli officials were at the scene and coordinating with local authorities.

“We are in the area anyway because of the events in Uman,” the representative said. “Local forces have ruled out the possibility that he drowned in a nearby river and are continuing to comb the land and fields nearby.”

According to the report, Ohana’s family said that due to his medical condition, he was unable to obtain insurance for his trip, so there was no possibility of sending a search team from Israel.

Since the fall of communism, Uman has seen the arrival of thousands of Israeli pilgrims every Rosh Hashanah.

The pilgrimage has generated friction between the predominantly Israeli arrivals and locals, many of whom resent the cordoning off by police of neighborhoods for the pilgrims.

Last week, Ukrainian nationalists destroyed a tent city erected by Hasidic Jews in Uman ahead of the pilgrimage, a local Jewish leader said.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.