Kidnapped Shliach is Released

By COLlive reporter

A week-long drama surrounding the whereabouts of Rabbi Tomer Rotem, the Chabad Shliach in Ecuador, has come to a sudden and positive end when he returned home safely.

“Baruch Hashem, he’s alive and well,” a family member informed COLlive.com late Friday afternoon.

Up until Motzoei Shabbos, August 6, media outlets around the world were asked not to report about his kidnapping even as word slowly leaked out about this odd incident.

Rotem, Director of the Chabad House in the capital of the South American republic of Ecuador, was kidnapped on Monday, August 1, while traveling.

His wife Rivka Rotem informed Ecuador police and officials at Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, as well as Israel’s Foreign Ministry about her husband’s disappearance.

Rotem is an Israeli citizen and his center services the many Israeli backpackers trekking in the region, but people involved in the case stressed that the matter was criminal, and not connected to terrorism.

While Israel National News reported that a demand for ransom was received at the Chabad House on Tuesday, COLlive was told no request for money was made.

While the worrying news was shared by word of mouth, the media including Israel’s Channel 2 TV kept silent. A public notice on COLlive.com originating from the family to say Tehillim was asked to be removed. His name was given to all those who emailed and called.

After 4 days in captivity, he was released in time for Shabbos, joining his family and concerned visitors of the Chabad House.

Israel National News reported that police tracked down the kidnappers of “the gang” and they were arrested.