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The New York-based Chabad-Lubavitch sect of Hasidic Judaism - one of the largest Jewish movements worldwide - has swung in behind the search for an Israeli backpacker missing in Otago.
Rabbi Mendel Goldstein, the Christchurch-based director of Chabad-Lubavitch in New Zealand, and his assistant, Rabbi Oren Raz, have
flown to Queenstown to assist in the search, the sect said on its chabad.org news website.
The pair are serving as liaisons to the family of Liat Okin, 35, and the Israeli government, which does not have a diplomatic mission in New Zealand.
Ms Okin - who the sect said is also known as Liat Tas - was last seen wearing a red hoodie with zip-up front, jeans and a backpack. She was reported missing by family members after she failed to contact them a week after setting out alone on a three-day tramp.
Rabbi Goldstein said on the website that he had received a phone call from former Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz saying he would look into the possibility of offering advanced Israeli aerial imaging technology to help in the search, if it was approved by the New Zealand government and relevant to the search.
Acting Senior Sergeant Steve Hutt, of Queenstown police, told NZPA last night that the two rabbis had been taken over the search area yesterday by helicopter so that they could see the rugged terrain confronting searchers.
"They are more understanding of what we're dealing with," he said.
He had listened to everything that Rabbi Goldstein had suggested could be used in the search, but was not aware of any offer of Israeli military technology.
On Wednesday, the Israeli embassy in Australia sent a supply of kosher food to the search team's base camp for the two rabbis.
The two rabbis were arranging four ritual "seder" feasts for 500 Israeli travellers in New Zealand to mark Passover, the holiest festival on the Jewish calendar, when they dropped everything to help in the search. An estimated 20,000 Israeli backpackers tour New Zealand every year.
"We are waiting for a good outcome," Rabbi Goldstein told the website. He urged community members to recite psalms for Ms Okin: "God willing, she will be celebrating Passover with us next week."
But police say fears for Ms Okin's safety are growing daily, since she went missing two weeks ago.
Ms Okin was tramping part of the Routeburn Track in Central Otago on March 25 and searchers have combed a sub-alpine area of the track north of the Mackenzie Hut, where she was last seen.
Mr Hutt said that searchers will now concentrate efforts on a number of side tracks.
Yesteday's focus was searching a number of passes trampers would not normally take, he said: "We're going to be re-visiting those from different angles and putting field teams into positions where someone might end up if they fell". The searchers were being taken in by helicopter and he said it will be a "real tough day" for them.
Outdoors experts have said Ms Okin was not an experienced tramper or well equipped and may have become disorientated on a section of the track described on a Department of Conservation website as "very exposed and extremely hazardous in adverse weather conditions".
"As every day passes concerns for her safety increase, obviously," Mr Hutt said. "You live in hope."
"The worst case scenario is that she's taken a wrong turn somewhere and we've just got to pinpoint where that could have been."
There was no suggestion the search would be called off yet.
"We're not setting a time limit on this," he said. "We want to find the girl."
Ms Okin has not touched her bank account, and her passports, money and her belongings are still at a friend's house in Queenstown.
- NZPA
