What a day! From despair to JOY! They found him!!

Shabbat shalom!

I’m updating this email from the bathroom of our congregation. I’m in tears! Tears of joy. Tears of gratefulness. If I’m honest, I didn’t expect this ending.

The email below I wrote earlier today. As I left for the congregation, there were dozens and dozens of cars on my normally empty road. Just trying to get to the area to look for the young boy. I’ve never seen anything like it. When I arrived at the congregation, I got a text message that they found him alive. Friends, this is an absolute miracle. 24 hours alone. Four years old. In a wooded desert-like area.

In the video below, the man who found him is overcome with emotion as he says, “I found him, we found him, thank you, Father.”

Below is what we went through as a nation for the last 24 hours. After years of war, death, kidnapping… This is an amazing moment of joy and unity.

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I’m writing this week’s letter with a heavier heart than usual, because the news I want to share with you isn’t happening somewhere far away — it’s happening right outside my window.

Yesterday afternoon, Elana and I noticed police and rescue vehicles gathering just outside our apartment building here in Ashkelon. We soon learned why. A four-year-old boy named Yuval Kogan had gone missing while walking with his father along Hofit Beach, in the stretch of open dunes and coastline between Ashkelon and the settlement of Nitzanim. At some point the two became separated, and when his father turned to bring him back, Yuval was simply gone.



That was Thursday morning. As I write this, nearly twenty-four hours have passed, and he still hasn’t been found.

What has unfolded since has been remarkable to witness, even in the midst of the fear. Helicopters have circled — one passed close enough to my balcony that I could feel it. The Marine Police Unit and divers have searched the water. United Hatzalah (Rescue) brought in a full drone unit and set up a command center right near the beach, running search flights through the night. Hundreds of volunteers, along with police and municipal teams, have been combing the dunes on foot since it happened, and yesterday I walked out into the middle of it — officers, reporters, concerned citizens, all standing together in a town that is usually so quiet.

Elana and I spent time on our balcony last night just watching the search area below us, hoping to spot him ourselves. We couldn’t. Later, when I went out for a bike ride, I noticed two jackals moving along the boardwalk — animals that normally keep well away from people at night. They’d clearly been pushed out of their usual grounds by all the activity. It was a small, strange detail, but it stayed with me — a sign of just how much human effort has been poured into this search, enough to unsettle even the wildlife.

Overnight, the head of the Southern District Police held an on-scene assessment and ordered the operation expanded through the night with every available resource. Shin Bet (Israeli FBI) has now joined the search as well — notable, since Shin Bet doesn’t typically involve itself in ordinary missing-person cases. Some have speculated that their presence points to a suspected terrorist angle, though as of this writing that remains unconfirmed and has not been stated by police or Shin Bet themselves. Yuval’s mother, Dina, spoke publicly on Friday, saying she is afraid this could be a kidnapping and pleading for anyone who can help to come. President Herzog has also called her directly to express his concern and confirmed he’s in contact with the police commissioner and Shin Bet’s director for updates.

No one has said aloud what Elana and I have both been thinking — that a four-year-old near open water is a possibility too painful to voice. So we haven’t voiced it either. We’re just praying.

Today, Elana and I went into the main part of the city to run a few errands, and getting home afterward was its own small ordeal. There were hundreds and hundreds of cars, no parking to be found anywhere, and people parking wherever they could — clearly not where they should — all in the effort to come help search. Even with the heat outside today, dozens of people were still out combing through the open, dune-like terrain near the beach. It’s hard to find the right word for that landscape — it’s not quite desert, not quite wilderness, just open, sandy, with dunes and growth, and, this week, full of people who came because they cared.

I don’t have a tidy ending for this letter, because the story doesn’t have one yet. But I wanted you to know what’s happening in our own neighborhood this week, and I wanted to ask you to do the one thing that matters most right now: pray for Yuval. Pray for his mother and father. Pray for the searchers who haven’t stopped since yesterday morning. Time is short, and he needs to be found — please, God, alive.