Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Two Crown Heights Jews Missing After Nepal Earthquake

Two friends from Crown Heights who traveled to Nepal on a hiking trip have not been heard from since the devastating earthquake which rocked the country on Saturday,

Danny Cole, a father of four, and Mendy Losh, now a California-resident, were reportedly traveling with a Nepalese sherpa guide, and hoping to climb part of Mount Everest.

The last communication from the two men dates back to Friday, when they texted their friend — and habitual traveling partner — Zevi Steinhauser that “the trip is going well. We just finished our first strenuous hike. We’re still on schedule.”

On Saturday, two hours before the disaster that claimed over 2,500 lives, Mendy wrote an email: “Doing well. Had my first strenuous hike this morning. Danny is dealing with some altitude sickness. The views are amazing. We are going to go higher now and starting to deal with colder weather which is not that fun.”

On Sunday, a representative from the tour company contacted Cole’s wife to inform her that they were still searching for the group in the aftermath of avalanches triggered by the quake. “She’s delirious in a way. She’s not talking to anybody,” Steinheiser told the Daily News.

“The families are really worried at this point,” Steinhauser told COLlive. “We don’t know how they are doing, especially since there are still many avalanches occurring due to the quake and many aftershocks. We don’t know if they have enough supplies to keep them until rescuers can get to them,” adding: We are waiting for word from them and are all praying for their safe return.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.