KATHMANDU – An Australian Jewish woman who found herself in Nepal during the earthquake is promising to stay in the country and help reconstruct it. Chani Gurewicz from Melbourne arrived in Nepal just a few days before the quake, but says that she now feels a calling to stay and make a contribution. “I’m going to try to do everything I can,” she said this week.

She planned to go the next morning to a remote village with a group of volunteers who will start reconstructing some buildings and erecting toilets for residents.

Gurewicz, 29, said she arrived in Nepal to enjoy the country, but “I’m not in this world to only experience the positive stuff,” so she plans to stay on an open-ended basis to help. “I just got here; I don’t want to leave Nepal,” she said.

Gurewicz comes from Melbourne, where she spent part of her school career at Beth Rivkah Ladies College. Since disaster struck Nepal, Kathmandu’s Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz has become famous for his work helping Jews and others, and Gurewicz’s efforts represent another mark of distinction for his family – she is his niece.

She was in a chemist when the ground shook, and as soon as it stopped she ran to Chabad House to check that the Lifshitz children were okay. “It was really scary,” she said. “At first I didn’t even know it was an earthquake, I thought it was the end of the world, something apocalyptic.”

Meanwhile, Nepal’s rabbi is making daily visits to rows of bodies in a village near Kathmandu, expecting to discover more Jewish dead.

The body of Or Asraf, the only known Israeli fatality in the quake, was finally retrieved on Sunday, and it was widely believed that all Jews missing in the quake have been accounted for. But Rabbi Lifshitz, director of Nepal Chabad and a key player in search and rescue for Jewish trekkers, has serious doubts.

“We have already found some bodies with Jewish names in Langtang,” he reported. “We don’t know if they are Jewish, but we’re checking.”

As Rabbi Lifshitz searched for more Jewish dead this week, Israeli backpackers were trying to absorb the news that Asraf has been confirmed dead. “It could have been me,” said Iyyar Schwartz, a 25-year-old who is finishing an eight-month stint travelling. “I also did that trek, and I know the area where he was.”

Asraf’s body was found on a ridge following a search operation by the Israelife Joint Disaster Response Team.

Eli Beer, founder of the Israelife Foundation and president of United Hatzolah, said: “We are very sad that our mission has ended in this way. Throughout all the days of the search, we remained hopeful that we would find Or alive and bring him home to his family.”

Nathan Jeffay joins the IDF in Nepal – read his first account in this week’s AJN.

NATHAN JEFFAY

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