Chanuka Miracle

The winter winds were starting to pick up one Chanuka evening. People were heading home to light the Chanuka menora and huddle around the candles in their warm homes with their families. But for the family of 8 year-old Nitzan Cohen the evening chill was far more foreboding. Nitzan is an active young child whose autism doesn't slow him down. On a trip to the rugged Burma Road park Nitzan got separated from his family. After a frantic search for the young boy by the family, friends and park employees proved fruitless the police were called. 

The police gathered whatever meager information was available opened a critical missing child incident and alerted United Hatzalah and other agencies. Via the Moskowitz Command Center, United Hatzalah dispatchers sent in the rugged TOMCAR ambutractors, the mobile command center and mobilized all volunteers who own private 4x4 vehicles. Over 200 United Hatzalah volunteers raced to the scene. Needless to say all media outlets began to cover the developing story (click here for TV report).

In an amazing display of unity people from around the area streamed in to help. Dozens of jeeps, ATV's and off-road vehicles joined the search. United Hatzalah medics jumped into arriving vehicles to assure that as many vehicles as possible had emergency medical caregivers.

Micki Cohen (no relation to Nitzan Cohen) coordinated United Hatzalah's response. Micki drives an ambulette for a special education institution in Jerusalem and was keenly aware of the delicate nature of the mission. In consultation with Nitzan's caregivers, Micki instructed the United Hatzalah volunteer searchers to avoid flashing the searchlights indiscriminately and most troublesome not to shout or make loud noises.

The fear was that Nitzan might get startled and run into the thick forest. Another United Hatzalah medic, also parent of a special needs child, thought about his hyper-protective tendencies towards his own child and began projecting it to Nitzan. "We just have to find him!" he declared.

It was closing in on midnight when the police decided to call off the search. The weather was getting cold and nobody wanted to multiply the search efforts by looking for searchers who got lost. The news generated a flurry of activity from all of the volunteers and professional searchers.

At 11:55 the call came in over the communications net that Nitzan had been found huddled under a tree in a particularly impassable area. Shouts of joy erupted throughout the mountainside as cold, tired but now jubilant searchers headed to the base of operations. Spontaneous song and dance broke out as the volunteers celebrated their own Chanuka miracle.