Rabbi Israel Alvum, a kosher supervisor from Bnei Brak, got stuck in the snow in Istanbul and was rescued after 17 hours by Turkish soldiers. He was taken to a mosque, spent part of the night inside and even prayed there in the morning: “They looked at me like a strange chicken, but no one said a word.”
While Israel is waiting for the cold wave and blizzard, it is already in full swing in various countries, including Turkey. And so a kosher supervisor from Bnei Brak found himself trapped for long hours in a severe snowstorm in the Istanbul area, until he was rescued by local soldiers.
Rabbi Israel Alvum (61) arrived on a mission at a candy factory in the Istanbul area, to give the place a kosher certificate. On Monday, at about 2:30 p.m., he set off for a freeway ride out of town along with Suleiman, a local driver. “Suddenly heavy snow began to fall and we got stuck in the middle of the road,” he says. “Trucks in front of us blocked the road. Then it turned out that they slipped and hit the cars. We tried to run back and forth, but without success.
We sat in the car for about ten hours and warmed up with the air conditioner. At one point we turned off the engine for fear of running out of gas, and sat like that for another six or seven hours. At this point, Turkish police arrived and began rescuing people. We were basking in the snow, in strong winds, maybe a kilometer, and then we reached military trucks that rescued us. “