The search for Nachman Keinan, the 24-year-old Chabad bochur missing in northern Eretz Yisroel, has entered another painful day, with family, friends and search teams still trying to understand how a young man known for constantly helping others could simply disappear without a trace.

On Monday, his father gave a deeply emotional interview to Ami Maimon on Kol Barama Radio, shortly after leaving the police station. During the conversation, he revealed a troubling new development in the search.

“I literally just came out of the police station,” he related. “I was told that they are now treating it as though there may be a nationalist motive. They are concerned that it may have become a nationalist incident.”

When Maimon repeated the question to make sure he had understood correctly, Keinan’s father confirmed it.

“Yes. The situation is really, really very difficult,” he replied. “We are completely helpless.”

The strain of the past week was evident throughout the interview. At one point, as he began speaking about his son, his voice broke and he started crying on air. Maimon gently urged him to hold on, telling him that the purpose of the interview was to help bring Nachman home.

His father last saw him on Sunday evening.

“I parted from him on Sunday evening,” he recalled. “He came to accompany me to davening. He told me, ‘Abba, I’m going for a moment to a friend, and I’ll come back with you for Mincha,’ and since then I haven’t seen him.”

Nachman later made his way north, where he was believed to be heading toward Tzfas to visit his rav. The last known information placed him in the Tiveria area, and extensive searches have since been carried out throughout the region.

But while the family has desperately searched for information about where Nachman went, another picture of him has slowly emerged from the messages pouring in from people who know him.

“There are people I don’t know sending me things from overseas, from all over the world, things my son used to do,” his father said through the emotion. “I don’t know where he found the strength to do all these things.”

During his time in 770, Nachman was involved with Kupat HaBachurim, helping bochurim who needed food, clothing and other basic necessities. His father described acts of generosity that were apparently carried out quietly, without even his family knowing their extent.

“He would give up his own food for other children, for bochurim who had nothing, for orphans whom he would help,” he recounted. “He would give them things that are simply difficult even to hear about.”

Those stories have been circulating among the bochurim now searching for him, adding another layer of emotion to an already wrenching situation.

“Even the bochurim who are searching for him today, when they hear these things, tears come down. Tears come down,” his father said. “They simply say, ‘How can it be that such an angel suddenly disappeared? Something here doesn’t make sense.’”

Nachman completed kevutza in 770 and was involved in Chabad activities in several places around the world, including the Philippines and France, alongside his work helping fellow bochurim in 770.

For a short time, the family thought there might have been a digital breakthrough. An attempt to access Nachman’s email account triggered a two-step verification request, raising hopes that someone might have been using the account.

That lead, however, went nowhere.

“They told us it was nothing, just some hackers who tried to get into that email account,” his father explained. “It was a false lead, unfortunately. A false lead.”

Maimon ended on a hopeful note, saying that everyone was waiting for the moment when Nachman would be found safe and sound and the family could celebrate with a large seudas hoda’ah. “Amen, amen, amen,” his father responded. “May it be His will.”

With no breakthrough yet in the search, Anash around the world are asked to continue saying Tehillim and davening for Kasriel Nachman ben Leah, that he be found safe and sound immediately.

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