(JTA) — A Jewish woman from New Jersey died in a plane crash in Nepal on her 30th birthday.
Irina Shekhets reportedly traveled to Nepal on a spiritual journey and was heading to a hiking trip to a Mount Everest base camp when the 15-seat, twin-engine plane crashed Aug. 23 about 50 miles south of Kathmandu. Fourteen people were killed, including four Americans.
Shekhets was a graduate of Brooklyn College Law School and recently had taken the bar exam. She was on leave from her job as an analyst for JP Morgan Chase.
Volunteers from the ZAKA International Rescue Unit left Israel Monday night to assist in the recovery and identification of Shekhets’ badly charred remains.
The decision to send a team was made in cooperation with Chabad House in Katmandu, which is coordinating the recovery efforts with local authorities, and the Israeli Foreign Office’s situation room, which assisted the team in obtaining the necessary visas.
Israeli backpackers in Chabad House Katmandu ahead of Rosh Hashanah will join the ZAKA volunteers in their search of the crash site.
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