NY Jewish medical student missing nearly a week found alive

A Jewish medical student from suburban New York was found alive after being missing for nearly a week.

Yossi Gerson, 29, a student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, was found Sunday morning. He had not been seen since Oct. 5, the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, when he told his mother that he was leaving the family home on Long Island to meet a homeless man with whom he had become friends, WCBS-TV in New York reported.

When Gerson did not return home, and local police were unable to locate him, his parents, Wendy and Alan Gerson, released a public statement. Yossi Gershon had been acting unusually leading up to his disappearance, his parents said in the statement.

They later offered a $20,000 reward for new information regarding his whereabouts, according to WCBS.

On Sunday morning, friends of the family arranged a gathering to say psalms on Gerson’s behalf at Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway. Over 1,200 people were in attendance, his parents said in a statement released later that day.

Forty minutes into the gathering, a “lost and disorientated” Gerson walked through the doors, according to the statement. Gerson was found by an “unknown man in a wheelchair” who placed him in a cab and directed it to go to the prayer gathering, the statement said.

Three days earlier, 800 volunteers turned out to search over 470 locations in Long Island, Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx, according to an update from the parents published by the Yeshiva World News on Friday.

“To the thousand plus volunteers who tirelessly searched for Yossi: His safe return is in your merit,” said the statement from Sunday, which thanked the community for their search efforts. “Those hours of upheaval were critical ones, and we have no doubt that your selfless determination and Mesiras Nefesh played a crucial role in keeping him safe.”