An intercontinental operation by ZAKA and Chabad volunteers led to the identification of the body of an elderly man who was found lifeless long after his death.
It all started about a week ago when Yisrael Godlavsky, the director of ZAKA in the Sharon region of Israel, received a request from Petah Tikva police regarding a Jewish widower whose body was found on Saturday in such an advanced state of decay that he could not be identified at the Institute of Forensic Medicin. The only information about him was his name and the name of the town in Russia where his family lived in 1999.
Immediately upon receiving the request, the head of the operations department at ZAKA, Haim Weingarten, contacted Rabbi Shia Deutsch, the Chabad emissary, and commander of ZAKA in Russia, who contacted the Chabad emissary in Kazan, Rabbi Yitzhak Gorlik, following news that the family of the deceased lived in the city of Kazan, the capital Republic of Tatarstan in Russia.
“Rabbi Gorlik went out with volunteers who went door to door together until they located an elderly woman who knew the family in the past and said that the brother and mother of the deceased moved to Germany many years ago,” Weingarten shared.

“Miraculously, immediately after we received the information from Russia, the Chabad emissaries were able to locate the brother of the deceased in the community of the Chabad emissary in Ulm, Germany, Rabbi Shneur Trebnik, who very sensitively informed the deceased’s brother of his brother’s passing. Rabbi Trevnik traveled hundreds of kilometers, took care of taking a DNA sample together with the German police, and handled the matter with great dedication until the sample was flown to Israel.”
After the sample was flown to Israel, it was transferred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, and the identity of the deceased was verified.
The commander of the ZAKA in the Sharon area, Israel Goldavsky, commented: “After many days of effort, we were able to identify the late Alexander and thus bring him to burial, thanks, among other things, to the dedicated activity of Mr. Ilan Tzabari of the police investigations department, Rabbi Asher Landau, the Forensic Medicine Institute, and Michal Gutvin, the coordinator of the legal department at ZAKA, who worked with great dedication for the honor of the dead.”
Haim Weingarten, head of the operations department at ZAKA, commented: “The special cooperation with Chabad emissaries around the world proves itself in every new operation. I would like to thank the many emissaries who helped: ZAKA volunteer Roi Gertler, Mr. Yonatan Yonathy, Chabad emissary Rabbi Shia Deutch, the commander of ZAKA in Russia, and especially the Chabad emissary, Rabbi Shneur Trevnik, who devoted long hours and considerable resources to the cause, which eventually led to the identification of the deceased.”