Mountwitten disappeared while on an early morning hike in the north Indian Parvati Valley at the beginning of August. Seven days after he was reported missing, a search and rescue team was sent by his insurance company to find him, to no avail.
The two-member crew of professional rescuers, with a handful of local police, soon grew into an expedition of 70 Israeli volunteers setting out to search for Mountwitten. Most were complete strangers who saw “missing person” flyers with the Israeli's face on them and wanted to help.
"Many of the Israelis in the region dropped by the search party headquarters located at Beit Chabad to offer emotional support and assistance in the manhunt," Yakova Baum, an American olah (immigrant to Israel) and Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in India told Arutz-7.
"Our rabbis teach that all of Israel are responsible for one another," said 23-year-old Sagiv from Zichron Yaakov - who travelled from a distant village to lend a hand when he heard news of a fellow Israeli backpacker’s disappearance. "We must all continue to care for each other and do everything we possibly can to help. When we do this, it seems to make life more livable.”
23-year-old Jerusalem resident Moran, a close friend of the missing boy, said she was amazed how not just Israeli, but travelling Jews from all over the globe appeared out of nowhere to join in the search for Daniel.
"It is a unique phenomenon not found amongst many other cultures," said Baum. "For example, this summer when a French girl was held captive on a Kashmiri houseboat by Muslim men for two weeks, barely a peep was heard, nor a page ruffled by French tourists. Yet around the same time, an Israeli girl fell to her death from a building in Delhi. The details surrounding her death were heard and discussed by every Israeli in the city and interviews with the local media were conducted at the Delhi Chabad House."
Parvati Valley has claimed the lives of numerous travelers. Every season tourists are declared missing and bodies are often found washed up miles away upon the dam, victims of the ice cold rapids of the Beas River that flows through the valley. The volunteers continue to trudge onward, though, determined, in the worst case scenario, to return Montwhite’s body to his family.
Anyone currently in India, wishing to help with the search, can contact Yakova Baum at: chashmal28@aol.com.