A haredi traveler from New York lost his tallit and tefillin this week at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida. Hours later, after a complex recovery process involving airport staff and local authorities, the religious items were found inside a massive dumpster full of garbage
Lost tefillin found in trash in Florida
(Video: Chaveirim of South Florida)
Tovy Schwartz was traveling Sunday from South Florida to JFK Airport in New York when he realized, shortly before boarding, that his tallit and tefillin were missing. After failing to locate them among his belongings, he asked the airline crew for help. Hours of searching at the airport yielded no results, and Schwartz began to fear the items had mistakenly been thrown away.
He turned to the local sheriff’s office, which reviewed airport security footage. The video showed a cleaning staff member had accidentally discarded the bag containing the tallit and tefillin. A race against time began since the airport waste was already en route for further processing. Schwartz contacted Rabbi Eli Eckstein, airport chaplain and Chabad rabbi of Dania Beach, who immediately got involved.
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Tovy Schwartz with one of the volunteers who found the tallit and tefillin
(Photo: Chaveirim of South Florida)
Using his contacts at the airport, Eckstein arranged for the garbage truck to be stopped before it reached its final destination, allowing volunteers from the South Florida-based group Chaveirim to begin a meticulous search through the massive trash facility.
In an interview with the Orthodox news outlet VIN News, Eckstein said: “As soon as I was contacted, I reached out to airport officials and the waste management company and arranged for the waste truck to be held so the dumpster wouldn’t continue to its final destination. With the help of Chaveirim, we were able to search and recover the tallis and tefillin before they were lost.”
Schwartz expressed immense gratitude to everyone involved. “Rabbi Eli Eckstein deserves the world’s credit for his quick action. Without his intervention, nothing would have happened here,” he told VIN News. “I can’t be thankful enough — to him, to the volunteers, to the airport officials, to Waste Management, and especially to the Broward Sheriff’s Office for giving me the first clue. It was truly a Kiddush Hashem to see so many people not give up.”