Rabbi Missing After Jumping In Ocean To Rescue Student

Photo of Virginia Beach Image by iStock

By Marcy Oster July 10, 2019

(JTA) — The U.S. Coast Guard will continue what it is calling a recovery mission for a rabbi who jumped into the ocean in a state park in Virginia Beach, Virginia to save a student who was having trouble returning to shore.

The 11-year-old student, who was at False Cape State Park on Tuesday afternoon with about 20 others from a local yeshiva, was reported to be safe. The missing rabbi has been named as Reuven Bauman, 35, a teacher at Yeshiva Toras Chaim in Norfolk Virginia by the Yeshiva World News website.

The search for the teacher was scaled back for the night when it got dark on Tuesday. It was expected to resume on Wednesday.

The water on Tuesday was reported to be choppy with rip currents, and lifeguards in the area had raised a red flag, which means that swimming is prohibited, local channel ABC 13 news reported. Swimming is prohibited in that area of the state park as well.

An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C. and a 45-foot Response Boat-Medium crew from Coast Guard Station Little Creek searched on Tuesday for the man. Crews from the Virginia Beach Fire Department and the Virginia Marine Police are also assisting with the search.

A call went out Tuesday evening on social media requesting prayers for the recovery of the rabbi. He is listed on the school’s website as teaching 7th and 8th grade secular studies teacher and 3rd grade Judaic studies.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO