ZAKA Returns To Haiti To Continue Searching For Body Of Missing Jewish Canadian

Jerusalem, Israel - February 3, 2010 5:43PM

Missing Canadian Jewish businessman Alexander (Shmuel) Bitton

Three ZAKA volunteers left Israel yesterday for Haiti to participate in the search for the body of the missing Canadian Jewish businessman Alexander (Shmuel) Bitton, believed to be buried under the rubble of the five-storey Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince.

Other ZAKA volunteers were involved in the unsuccessful search for the missing Canadian in the first few days after the quake, working together with the IDF Home Front Command. They dug a tunnel through the rubble in the direction of the hotel lobby, in an attempt to reach the reception computers and possibly locate the number of his hotel bedroom. However, the search was called off due to fears for the safety of the volunteers and workers.

Thanks to the assistance of the American Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, the ZAKA volunteers will work with an American recovery delegation which is aiming to retrieve the bodies of 17 Americans known to have been in the hotel at the time of its collapse. The ZAKA volunteers, experienced in forensic s, will be responsible for body identification.

The mission is expected to last two months, with the ZAKA volunteers being replaced by others from ZAKA Israel every ten days. The Chabad emissary in the Dominican Republic will provide the ZAKA volunteers with kosher food.

Missing Canadian Jewish businessman Alexander (Shmuel) Bitton