Yeshiva Student Nachman Kinan Missing Over a Week

Nachman Kinan, a 25-year-old Chabad yeshiva student from Beit Shemesh, has been missing for more than a week after setting out to meet his rabbi in Tzfat. Police forces, volunteer search organizations, and dive teams continue combing the Tiberias and Sea of Galilee region, where the young man's phone last pinged. His family, in deep distress, is urging the public to assist in the search and has expressed grave concern for his safety.

According to police information, Kinan left his home on Sunday evening carrying a black backpack and a dark brown tefillin bag. The young man, who returned several years ago from an extended stay in the Philippines, had planned to meet with his rabbi in Tzfat for an urgent Torah consultation. His father last saw him at the entrance to a synagogue in Beit Shemesh, where Nachman mentioned he intended to visit a close friend before continuing north.

At 10 p.m., Kinan contacted his rabbi by phone, who was at a hospital at the time due to a family matter. The rabbi offered to arrange overnight accommodations and the two agreed to meet the following morning at 10 a.m. But that planned meeting never took place. The last contact with the young man occurred the next morning, when he spoke with his father by phone and mentioned that his phone battery was about to die. Since those moments, the device has been off and all contact has been lost, according to a report published Tuesday in Mako.

Following the missing person report, Israeli police launched an intensive investigation. The Beit Shemesh station commander and officers are working in the field in close coordination with Northern District police. While reviewing security camera footage from businesses in the area, investigators spotted Kinan walking on foot through the streets of Tiberias toward Gai Beach on the Kinneret around 6 p.m. Following this dramatic finding, dive teams were also dispatched to the area and are searching the depths of the lake, though so far without success.

Brother of Nachman Kinan speaks out on kikar shabbat interview

"Nachman, my younger brother, left home Sunday evening by bus toward Tzfat. He was supposed to meet with his rabbi, he studied at a yeshiva there in the past. He simply didn't arrive. Not to Tzfat, not to the yeshiva, and not to the meeting," his brother Daniel told Kikar Hashabat. According to him, the last indication of Nachman's whereabouts came on Monday, when cellular data showed he was in the Tiberias area. "Our last ping is from that Monday. We're trying to understand where to search in Tiberias, and that's the main question right now."

Family members and volunteers continue moving between different locations in the area, attempting to locate any information that might lead to Nachman. "We're simply combing through places, taking every indication, every report and every piece of information that comes in and trying to verify it and understand. But it's just helplessness, because there's no thread to pull," the brother described the anxious moments. The family fears a possible abduction scenario.

Volunteers from various organizations, including Yedidim, ZAKA, Yachol (a volunteer emergency response organization), and other groups, have joined the search based on different leads in the Tiberias and northern region. Family members express deep concern that this is a young man with positive, bright energy who maintains regular contact, and they fear he may have been abducted by hostile elements in the northern area.

According to the police description, Kinan is of medium build, approximately 5'9" tall, with black hair and a beard. His eyes are brown. At the time of his disappearance, he was wearing a black suit and white shirt, a black hat, and carrying a black backpack and dark brown tefillin bag. Israeli police are calling on anyone with information about the whereabouts of Katriel Nachman Kinan, or any other details that might assist in locating him, to urgently contact the Beit Shemesh police station at 02-9902384, or Israel Police's 100 hotline.