These Jewish Boy Scouts saved a man’s life on the flight home from a 100-mile mountain trek
For the teens, the episode on the airplane epitomized what they had joined the Boy Scouts to do

Ariel Yaron (left), Moshe Grimaldi (second from left), Evan Gilder (center) were among five members of a Jewish contingent of Boy Scouts who participated in a CPR rescue aboard a flight to New York on July 11, 2024. (Courtesy Evan Gilder)
(JTA) — Earlier this month, a group of 10 Jewish Boy Scouts hiked more than 100 miles in New Mexico, but the trek wasn’t the most intense part of their trip. That came on the plane ride home, when two of the scouts and their adult staff members saved a man’s life.
The two scouts — Moshe Grimaldi, 17, and Ariel Yaron, 16 — along with their advisor, Evan Gilder, adult leader on the trek Joel Shuart, and nurse practitioner Rachel Travis, who had traveled with the group, performed CPR on an elderly passenger who had gone into cardiac arrest until his heart began to beat again.
The grueling hike, organized annually by a Jewish scouting organization, allows Jewish scouts to participate in the movement’s activities while observing halacha, or Jewish law. For the teens, the episode on the airplane epitomized what they had joined the Boy Scouts to do: model upstanding behavior as well as Jewish values.
“Obviously one of the greatest mitzvot in Judaism is pikuach nefesh,” Yaron told JTA, referring to the principle of saving a life, which is paramount in Jewish law. “So that’s as pikuach nefesh as it gets.”
The backpacking trip, organized by the National Jewish Committee on Scouting at the Philmont Scout Camp, took the scouts on a path through the Rocky Mountains, where, according to a description of the hike, they panned for gold, shot rifles and raced burros. They also observed Shabbat, kept kosher and prayed every day. According to a 2015 article in Jewish Action, an Orthodox Union magazine, there were some 840 Shabbat-observant Jews among the more than 1 million Cub and Boy Scouts nationally.
On the July 11 flight to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, when the passenger went into cardiac arrest, the two staff members rushed to the front of the plane and began conducting chest compressions. Recognizing that they would need more hands on deck, Gilder called Grimaldi and Yaron to join, and they performed CPR for 45 minutes until a pulse was detected again, with the two teens alternating performing cycles of compressions lasting about two minutes. Other volunteers aboard the plane assisted in providing air to the patient, administering three EpiPens and other medications, and inserting intravenous fluids.
The plane was rerouted to Pittsburgh, where the patient was immediately taken to a hospital with his family.
“Usually in movies, it’s just like, one guy, he goes for 20 minutes while they call the cops or whatever. But in reality, CPR is very exhausting,” Yaron said. “I mean, I’m an athlete and I’m relatively young. But for any other guy, like your average Joe doing CPR, it’s difficult.”
Grimaldi, currently a lifeguard at a Boy Scouts camp in upstate New York, said the experience was “surreal.” But he said his multiple CPR and first aid trainings, both as a scout and a lifeguard, meant he was prepared.
“I was very nervous in the moment, but it didn’t stop me from just getting up and doing what I needed to,” Grimaldi told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The amount of relief I had when I realized that he left the plane and he had a pulse — that was just incredible.”
Grimaldi is nearly at Eagle Scout status, the movement’s highest echelon, and has melded Jewish service with his scouting work. His final service project was cataloging graves at a historical Jewish cemetery in Yonkers, New York.
Yaron, an incoming junior at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School, the performing arts school in New York City, also sees scouting as a chance to meet other Jewish teens. He learned CPR in school and is also an Eagle Scout.
“It makes me grateful for the life that I get to live now, and makes me realize how important it is to take the most of the moment and to care for yourself and to care for others,” he said. “Like the Boy Scout motto: Always be prepared, to be ready for whatever life gives you.”
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Film & TV Val Kilmer was the voice of my generation’s Moses (and God)
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker spoke at a synagogue on Yom Kippur. Its rabbi says Jews should learn from his 25-hour Senate speech.
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker’s rabbi has notes on Cory Booker’s 25-hour speech
-
Fast Forward Naftali Bennett is back: Former Israeli prime minister will make another run at Netanyahu
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.