Overview
- Tovy Schwartz realized the items were missing on Sunday before a flight from FLL to JFK and sought help from Chaveirim and the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
- Airport surveillance confirmed a cleaning crew had mistakenly discarded the tallis and tefillin into a waste container.
- Airport chaplain Rabbi Eli Eckstein contacted airport officials and the waste company to stop the outbound truck and secure access to the refuse.
- Volunteers from Chaveirim, with airport staff and Waste Management/FCC Environmental Services personnel, sifted through refuse at the State Road 7 facility and located the bag on Tuesday.
- The items were recovered hours before the dumpster was due to be emptied, and Schwartz publicly thanked all involved, calling the outcome a Kiddush Hashem.