Missing Lawrence man returns home

Parents grateful for community’s strong support

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By JEFFREY BESSEN

jbessen@liherald.com

Yosef Gerson, the Lawrence resident reported missing by his parents on Oct. 5, returned home by taxicab on Saturday night. According to his parents, Alan and Wendy Gerson, “He was lost and disoriented all this time. Amazingly in Manhattan, just as we’re all saying Tehillim, an unknown man in a wheelchair put Yossi in a cab and sent him home,” they said in a prepared statement.

Gerson, 29, a medical student with a cognitive disorder, was last seen in Woodhaven, Queens, that Monday, police said. Based on the Silver Alert that was issued, Gerson went to Queens to a meet a friend, Joe Siegell, who is homeless. Siegell said that he directed Gerson to a bus stop, possibly the Q 113, according to police. The Q 113 bus travels between Seagirt Boulevard and Beach 20th Street in Far Rockaway to Parsons Boulevard and 88th Avenue in Queens and makes a stop on Rockaway Turnpike by the Costco in Lawrence.

The Silver Alert Program was created to disseminate immediate information to local media, hospitals and other organizations when a senior citizen or other individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other cognitive disorders goes missing.

“Tuesday night, when Yossi’s homeless friend called asking for him, we realized that something was very wrong,” the parents said. Yossi is the family nickname for Yosef. “Yossi was lost and in potential grave danger. If he was OK, he would certainly have come home or called us. With the help of Rabbi Boruch Ber Bender(founder and president of Lawrence-based Achiezer), we contacted the police and our friends in the community.” Gerson’s parents confirmed that he went to visit Siegell, who was alone for the Jewish holiday of Shmini Atzeres.

Achiezer is an organization that supports other groups and individuals during a time of crisis. “It shows that the community is not as divisive as it thinks,” Bender said. “People just came together to be there for somebody else.”

On Oct. 7, family and friends offered a $20,000 reward for information that could help find Gerson. The next day, more than 1,000 people joined together to conduct a search of 470 locations, including more than 115 hotels and motels, every hospital in Queens, Long Island, Brooklyn, Bronx and Manhattan hospital, along with subway stations and all Long Island Rail Road stations.

The Chabad Community News Service reported that Gerson was thought to be in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn on Oct. 8. But he was not seen there.

On Sunday, the Rockaway Nassau Safety Patrol, a Queens-based security organization, announced on Facebook that Gerson had returned home.

“These past few months have been difficult for Yossi on a personal level,” his parents statement read. “The challenging life circumstances he’d been facing, coupled with the pain that he was exposed to in the lives of others, led to an emotional crisis.”

On Saturday night, 1,200 people gathered at Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway to pray for the Gerson family. “As we listened in to the Tehillim from our home phone, friends sent us pictures of the scene, friends: Jews of every stripe and shul affiliation, praying together with fervor,” the Gersons said. It was 40 minutes after this gathering that Gerson walked into his family’s house.