ד׳ אלול ה׳תשפ״ה | August 27, 2025
The Gan Yisroel Counselor Buried in the Front Row Near the Ohel
Today, 3 Elul, marks the 65th yahrtzeit of Nechemia (Neil) Pomerantz, an 18-year-old counselor at Gan Yisroel in Swan Lake who passed away in a tragic and mysterious incident. Remarkably, he was buried near the Rebbe’s Ohel among prominent chasidim.
Today, 3 Elul, marks the 65th yahrtzeit of Nechemia (Neil) Pomerantz, an 18-year-old counselor at Gan Yisroel in Swan Lake who passed away in a tragic and mysterious incident. Remarkably, he was buried near the Rebbe’s Ohel among prominent chasidim.
By Anash.org reporter
Today, 3 Elul, marks the 65th yahrtzeit of Nechemia (Neil) ben Reb Aharon Pomerantz.
Nechemia was an 18 year old counselor at Gan Yisroel in Swan Lake in 5720 (1960) when, in a tragic and mysterious accident, his body was found in a nearby pond. He was last seen swimming in the 9-foot deep pond on 3 Elul , a Friday afternoon at 4:00 and following many hours of extensive search by the New York State Police, his body was discovered the following day.
At the time, his father, who ran a department store, said there had been some sort of antisemitic incident at the camp and added, “there may be a connection to my son’s disappearance.”
Remarkably, he was laid to rest at the Montefiore Cemetery, in the first row – just a few feet from the Rebbe’s Ohel, in the section where some of the most prominent chassidim are buried. Among them are Harav Elya Yaichel-Simpson – mazkir of the Frierdiker Rebbe and chozer of the Rebbe Rashab – and Reb Shlomo Aharon Kazarnovsky, who for many years served as chairman of Agudas Chassidei Chabad and was instrumental in the purchase of 770 and the Rebbe’s home.
Very little information is known about Nechemia’s life. Anyone with additional details or memories is invited to share them in the comment section below.
Yehi zichro baruch.
COMMENTS
Meir Roness always found an excuse to mark a day as special in his quest for Tzedaka. I remember him asking for “Tzedaka in honor of Gimel Elul – The Yahrtzeit of the counselor who drowned in CGI”.
Thanks for mentioning
any insight on his family? and what the background is?
I believe I heard from rabbi zeligson, how the Rebbe gifted him a pair of tefillin and when he asked the Rebbe for permission to go to Eretz Yisroel, the Rebbe told him that he will go with the Rebbe. When the Rebbe visited CGI that summer, he unusually went around the whole lake and stopped for awhile at the spot that the bochur was later found weeks later.
I heard he was a Bal Teshuva and he went swimming on Friday and the lifeguard noticed someone was missing, the fire department and police and his parents came, but he wasn’t found, when the camp was having Sholosh Seudos his body washed up to the shore, and the whole camp was very shaken, they tried singing with the kids to distract them, and his parents got upset. They also wanted to do an autopsy but the hanhala convinced them out of it. On Sunday they had the Levaye and the Chevre Kadisha decided that since he was a Bal tshuva and his parents were upset they would give him a choshove spot.
He was an athlete and was an excellent swimmer, the theory was he banged his head into a wall/dock and had a seizure.