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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cFrom the tunnels in Brooklyn to the tunnels in nyack! The black coats never disappoint,\u201d one user wrote. \u201cThere [sic] drawn to tunnels. Natural instinct,\u201d another wrote.<\/p>\n The girls, students from the Toras Emachu school in Monsey, New York, had been visiting Nyack Memorial Park on a school trip when they entered a large drainage culvert located in the park, according to the Orangetown Police Department.<\/p>\n While walking through the tunnel system, the students got lost but were heard by individuals in the town who alerted police, according to Nyack Mayor Joseph Rand.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst responders immediately came to the scene and located all the girls at various points in Nyack,\u201d Rand wrote in a post on Facebook. \u201cTechnically, none of the girls were \u2018rescued,\u2019 because they all came out under their own power, but everyone\u2019s lucky that the authorities responded and figured out where all the girls were as quickly as they did.\u201d<\/p>\n *WATCH*: Nyack Mayor Joe Rand speaks with Rockland Daily about the rescue of 71 children from an underground creek system and expresses his gratitude to responding agencies for bringing everyone to safety. pic.twitter.com\/QJJ03YMZi1<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Rockland Daily (@Rockland_Daily) June 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Rand said that roughly 70 students were on the trip, and there were no injuries beyond some \u201ccuts and scrapes.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Nyack Village Administrator Andy Stewart told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the school group had not been given a permit to host a field trip in the park on Wednesday, and while there was \u201cdefinitely concern over the violation of that law,\u201d he wasn\u2019t sure how the local government would follow up with the school.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a group that did not have a permit, and so we didn\u2019t know they were there, and they made no plans with the village,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n The Toras Emachu school did not respond to numerous requests for comment from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.<\/p>\n But while local town officials handle the response to the incident, for some Jewish groups, the online response underscored how an innocuous incident can become a vehicle for antisemitic rhetoric.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, internet comment sections have become havens for antisemitic memes and conspiracies, and commenters emboldened by relative anonymity will jump at any opportunity to demonize Jews,\u201d Nate Wolfson, the communications director for the Nexus Project, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the incident. \u201cIn this case, a story of dozens of children getting lost on a field trip is appallingly used to spread stereotypes about Jews, including comparing them to rats.\u201d<\/p>\n Wolfson added that the references to the Chabad tunnel incident had been \u201cespecially troubling,\u201d adding that the story had been \u201croutinely used by antisemites to spread truly vicious and dangerous conspiracies about child sex trafficking.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Nyack residents also called out the spate of antisemitic comments about the incident online.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was not hard to find. It was not buried. It was not one bad comment from one bad actor. It was thread after thread of people in this county saying the same old bullshit about Jewish people like it was nothing,\u201d wrote one resident in a post on Facebook alongside a series of screenshots of antisemitic comments. \u201cIf all it takes is one local news story for your contempt to come spilling out, the contempt was already there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident \u2013 ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded \u2013 I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.<\/p>\n There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.<\/p>\n As a Times of Israel reporter, I\u2019m committed to telling stories of resilience like Shilgit\u2019s. But my colleagues and I can’t do this alone. If you value work like this, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to keep real human reporting like this going.<\/p>\n \u2014 Stav Levaton, military reporter<\/p>\n \t\t\t
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