Family Fears Kidnapping After 24-Year-Old Nahman Keinan Disappears En Route to Rabbi in Northern Israel

Nahman Keinan, a 24-year-old from Beit Shemesh, has been missing for about a week after disappearing between Tiberias and Safed. His family fears he may have been kidnapped. Nahman's father, Yossi Keinan, filed a police report at the Beit Shemesh station, and extensive searches are underway. Yossi expressed concern, saying, "I fear someone kidnapped my son. This is a dangerous area. He disappeared without contact, which is unusual."

Nahman, a Chabad Hasid who recently returned from the Philippines, was last seen entering a synagogue before telling his father he was visiting a friend. He planned to travel from Beit Shemesh to Safed to meet his rabbi for urgent consultation. The rabbi confirmed Nahman reached Safed and spoke with him by phone around 10 p.m., but was at a hospital due to a family matter and arranged to meet Nahman the next morning. Nahman said he would manage on his own and planned to meet the rabbi at 10 a.m. but was never heard from again. His father spoke to him briefly the next morning before the phone battery died.

Search efforts focus on locations Nahman was known to have visited, including footage from a Tiberias business security camera showing him walking toward the Gai Beach near the Sea of Galilee. Police from Beit Shemesh and the northern district, along with divers searching the lake, have found no trace so far. Yossi noted the police commander is actively involved in the search and that the family remains hopeful. Nahman was last seen on Monday, August 10, around 6 p.m. near Gai Beach, wearing a white shirt, black suit, hat, black backpack, and dark brown tefillin bag. He is approximately 1.74 meters tall with black hair, a beard, and brown eyes.

The family continues to pray and hope for Nahman's safe return, describing him as "the light of our lives."