A Brooklyn rabbi was found dismembered in an abandoned closet in Bogota, Colombia, on Monday after he was attacked and murdered by members of a Colombian gang, local authorities said.
Nachum Yisrael Eber, 51, an Orthodox Jew from the Belz Chassidic community, was in the South American country supporting emerging Jewish communities. His family lost contact with him on April 21.
Police reportedly found his body in a blue wardrobe closet, which had been left on a street, with bloodstains around it. According to initial reports, a local criminal gang ambushed Eber in what appears to have been a robbery turned murder. Investigators are not ruling out other motives.
Eber’s family is working with representatives from Chesed Shel Emes and community leaders on transporting his remains to Israel for burial.
Colombian authorities have opened a formal homicide investigation, while community leaders are exerting diplomatic pressure to expedite the proceedings.
An earlier version of this article appeared in JNS in Spanish.
