Chabad Helps as 3 Satmar Chassidim Crash in Virginia

By COLlive reporter

Chabad Shluchim and Hatzolah Air came to the assistance of 3 Satmar Chassidim who were involved in a car accident in Virginia as the state was experiencing a severe winter storm on its highways this week.

The men were traveling on Motzoei Shabbos in a rental car from the New York area to visit a business they manage in rural Virginia.

“The rough winter weather on the dark snowy highway made our driving extremely challenging and we decided to find a hotel to sleep at and wait for better weather before continuing,” one of them recounted to Yeshiva World News.

“Hashem wanted differently and on the way to the hotel, (our vehicle) spun out of control on the icy Virginia Highway and we hit the guard rail with such extreme force that our car flipped over three times,” he said.

One of the passengers was badly injured and was evacuated by emergency services to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, Virginia.

“I could not breathe,” the passenger recalled. “I had no clue what was happening. To say I was scared is really an understatement.”

While the “doctors were poking and prodding me with needles and tubes to try to save my life,” he said, colleagues reached out to the closest Chabad Shliach – Rabbi Zvi Yaakov Zwiebel, Director of Chabad at Virginia Tech in the city of Blacksburg.

The Shlucha Mrs. Chanie Zwiebel was quick to cook and prepare a few hearty and delicious kosher meals for the patient and his 2 colleagues on Sunday morning. They included fish, chicken, farfalle and vegetables.

“The highway was a terrible mess,” Rabbi Zwiebel told COLlive.com. A day later, drivers on a 50-mile stretch of Interstate 95 in eastern Virginia were left stranded for some 24 hours.

“As soon as it was safe to drive, I got onto the road,” the rabbi said. It took him an hour to get to the hospital where he met with the Satmar Chassidim, still shaken by their car accident.

He said they were thankful to Hashem to be alive and were grateful to meet a fellow Jew offering assistance.

Rabbi Zwiebel said it was a natural thing to do. “When you hear that someone is in trouble, you drop everything and go to help,” he said. “Every Shliach of the Rebbe is there to help every Yid.”

On Tuesday, Hatzolah Air flew an airplane to transfer the patient from Virginia to the Trauma Care at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.

“I started crying for the first time, only this time tears of thanks to Hashem for not only saving my life but for sending these beautiful Malachim to rescue me and bring me home,” the patient said.

“With the help of my wife and family from my hospital bed I want to shout out my Hakuras Hatov to the world for all the good Hashem has done for me these last 2 days and for the incredible Hatzolah Air team who took such incredible care of me.”

The public is asked to say Tehillim for the full recovery of Avrohom ben Gittel Eidel.