fbpx

At Brookline school, students search for missing classmate

At the Maimonides School in Brookline, Mass., this morning, it was all hands on deck as students and faculty mobilized to locate one of their own: Caleb Jacoby, 16, an 11th-grader and the son of Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby who has been missing since Monday afternoon.
[additional-authors]
January 8, 2014

At the Maimonides School in Brookline, Mass., this morning, it was all hands on deck as students and faculty mobilized to locate one of their own: Caleb Jacoby, 16, an 11th-grader and the son of Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby who has been missing since Monday afternoon.

At the school’s computer lab, kids were working social media, spreading Caleb’s photo around the Internet. The lunch room had turned into a gathering spot for search volunteers, serving up trays of bagels and urns of coffee. About 200 volunteers are participating in the search, which has extended into Boston.

“The school will continue to engage all of its resources to aid Caleb’s parents and the Brookline Police,” Head of School Naty Katz said in a statement. “Our entire school community is praying for Caleb’s safe return and we are deeply appreciative of the outpouring of support.”

After morning prayers, Rabbi Mordechai Soskil, the middle and upper school’s Judaic studies principal, acknowledged the difficulty of the day.

“We are here supporting the 340 kids that are here today,” Soskil said. “For the vast majority, it means going to class. The best thing to do for vast majority is to let them know that life is unpredictable. For a handful of kids, mostly 11th graders, the best thing is to give then an outlet. We are telling kids everyone here cares about them and thinks about them. We are concerned about Caleb, but there’s the same level of concern for everyone here.”

On Wednesday, Brookline Police Captain Thomas Keaveney told MassLive.com that law enforcement was “leaning more toward” treating the case as a runaway, rather than an abduction.

One of Caleb’s classmates, Adele Buff, was heading up the social media effort. Mid-morning, there were 15 kids typing away at computers and using cell phones to spread the word.

“We are contacting as many people as we can, at colleges, YMCAs and organizations, to let them know about Caleb and to contact us or the Brookline police,” Buff said. “We created a blog. We are getting a lot of feedback from people who want to help spread the word. He’s a quite, good kid.”

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

A Bisl Yom Kippur~ Plenty of Regrets

Yom Kippur is admitting our plentiful regrets and summoning and building our inner determination and drive to be better people, regrets, and all.

Expanding the Soul

There is a struggle within us between constriction and expansion, between despair and vitality. Good humor can be a powerful ally against the constriction that suffering creates.

Making Torah More Accessible

The 402-page book is organized around 36 life lessons related to the Book of Genesis, with thoughtful study questions and dozens of responses from respected sources in Jewish thought.

Avi Nesher Fights the Boycott with a Human Story

Making Israeli films is not easy. Budgets are generally small by American standards, and international financing has become increasingly difficult to secure amid the cultural boycott of Israeli cinema.

Knowing Our History

In this time of introspection and rising adversity, let us resolve as American Jews to write our new chapter by better understanding our history.

My Choice for Essay of the Year

The collective assault against Israel has been so broad and deep it’s been hard finding anyone in the mainstream media who will dare go after the Hamas murderers whose biggest victims are the Palestinians.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.