Body Of Rabbi Who Drowned After Rescuing Students Found

Photo of Virginia Beach Image by iStock

By Cnaan Liphshiz July 15, 2019

(JTA) — A body believed to be that of a rabbi who jumped into the ocean to save a student was found off the coast of North Carolina.

Volunteers looking for Reuven Bauman, 35, found the body Sunday, five days after the teacher at Yeshiva Toras Chaim in Norfolk, Virginia jumped into choppy water at False Cape State Park after a student, said to be 13 years old.

The student made it safely to shore but the rabbi never returned and was believed to have been swept away by rip currents. According to Yeshiva World News, the body was identified as Bauman’s.

His brother, Rabbi Mordechai Bauman of University Heights, is a teacher at Yeshiva Derech Hatorah in Cleveland Heights. The Baumans grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey.

Reuven Bauman, who is listed on the school’s website as teaching seventh- and eighth-grade secular studies teacher and third-grade Judaic studies, is the father of five children.
A local rabbi from Virginia, Gavriel Rudin, told the CBS affiliate News 3 WTKR that volunteers would continue to search for Bauman.

“We know the chances are slim, but we have not given up and Jews throughout the world are hoping and praying for his safe return,” he told the news channel before the body was found.

He said that in Judaism, finding the body and providing a proper burial are of “incredible importance.”

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