Campus Alert Archive
Northeastern

Two Co-Ops in Tel Aviv, One Holiday Visit in Jerusalem: Northeastern's 72-Hour Evacuation From Israel

MAevacuationemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, three Northeastern students were inside Israel when Hamas launched its surprise attack from Gaza — two co-op students in Tel Aviv (Jesse Ruigomez and Keren Doherty) and an N.U.in Greece student (Joshua Einhorn) visiting family in Jerusalem for Simchat Torah. Northeastern's Global Safety and Security team identified the students within hours, arranged ground transport with security details from Tel Aviv to Ben Gurion Airport, and flew them out to Madrid, Lisbon, and Athens by October 9 — making Northeastern one of the first U.S. universities to complete an Israel evacuation in the wake of the October 7 attack.

Alerts
3
Response
min
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
Northeastern University (Global Safety & Security, Israel)
Private R1 · MA
~28,000 studentsNortheastern Global Safety & Security
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTPhone
Approximate reconstruction553 chars
Northeastern Global Safety: This is Northeastern University's Global Safety and Security team in Boston calling for [student name]. We are aware of the ongoing security situation in Israel. Please confirm your location and that you are safe. Shelter in place at your current address. Do not travel to Ben Gurion or anywhere else until we coordinate transport. We will call you back within the hour with next steps. If sirens sound, follow Home Front Command instructions and go to the nearest mamad or shelter. Reply to this call or text back when safe.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Northeastern's Global Safety and Security operates a 24/7 duty desk in Boston that maintains a real-time roster of students abroad through the university's pre-departure travel registry — the same system that powered the 2024 Northeastern Lebanon and 2026 Iran-region check-ins
Co-op students Ruigomez and Doherty were on six-month industry placements in Tel Aviv, not classroom semester study-abroad — Northeastern's experiential model puts more students into long-term overseas placements than peer institutions
October 7 was Simchat Torah; many U.S. consular and airline channels were operating with reduced staffing, which is why early-call university coordination was decisive
UPDATESMS
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from Northeastern Global News reporting that 'Northeastern provided Ruigomez and Doherty transportation and a security detail from Tel Aviv to Ben Gurion Airport' and that 'Ruigomez took a flight to Madrid, Spain, where he has family. Doherty took a flight to Lisbon'477 chars
Northeastern Global Safety update: Transport with a security detail will pick you up at your apartment at the time confirmed by phone. Route: Tel Aviv to Ben Gurion Airport. Travel light — one bag. Carry passport and Northeastern ID. Your flight has been booked: Ruigomez to MAD (Madrid), Doherty to LIS (Lisbon). Northeastern will cover all costs. If the route is unsafe at departure, the driver will reroute and we will rebook. Call the duty desk if you experience any delay.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Ben Gurion is approximately 40 miles from the Gaza border — the route from central Tel Aviv runs partly along Highway 1, well outside Home Front Command's primary alert zones for short-range Gazan rockets, but still inside medium-range coverage
The Madrid and Lisbon destinations were dictated by the students' personal connections, not by Northeastern policy — a hallmark of the university's case-by-case evacuation model versus a cohort airlift
Doherty and Ruigomez's evacuation occurred on Sunday October 8, the day before most U.S. peer institutions even confirmed they had students in Israel
ALL CLEAREmail
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from the Northeastern Global News article that announced the safe evacuation of all three students by October 9, 2023652 chars
Northeastern community update: All three Northeastern students who were in Israel during the events of October 7 have been safely evacuated. Two co-op students traveled to Madrid and Lisbon; a third, who was visiting family in Jerusalem while studying with N.U.in in Greece, returned to Athens on a flight he had already booked. Our Global Safety and Security team continues to monitor the situation and to support any Northeastern community members in the region. Faculty, staff, or students with concerns about colleagues or loved ones in Israel may contact Global Safety at the email address below. — Northeastern University Global Safety & Security

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The October 9 announcement is the official close-of-incident message of record — issued less than 48 hours after the October 7 attack began
Northeastern Global News functions as the university's authoritative external-communications channel; it is read by parents and the press in lieu of a public alert archive
Joshua Einhorn's flight from Tel Aviv to Athens had been booked before October 7 because his N.U.in Greece semester continued in Athens — Northeastern only had to confirm the routing was still safe
Context

Background

Northeastern University's experiential-learning model puts an unusually large number of undergraduates into long-term international placements at any given time, and the university maintains a Global Safety and Security duty desk in Boston that runs a real-time roster of those students. When Hamas's October 7, 2023 surprise attack from Gaza triggered Home Front Command sirens across Israel, that roster identified three Northeastern students inside the country: co-op students Jesse Ruigomez and Keren Doherty in Tel Aviv, plus N.U.in Greece student Joshua Einhorn visiting family in Jerusalem for Simchat Torah. Within 48 hours the team had arranged ground transport with security details from Tel Aviv to Ben Gurion Airport and booked the two co-op students onto outbound flights to Madrid and Lisbon, while Einhorn used a pre-existing return flight to Athens. The Boston Globe and CBS Boston reported the evacuation as one of the fastest U.S. university responses to the October 7 attack. The case-by-case airlift model — identify, escort, fly out — has since been reused for subsequent Middle East crisis responses and is included here as a structural counterpoint to Notre Dame's relocation-to-London approach and NYU Tel Aviv's group-departure model.
Analysis

Key Findings

Northeastern completed the evacuation of all three identified students within roughly 48 hours of the October 7, 2023 attack — among the fastest publicly documented U.S. university responses
The university's case-by-case airlift model (identify, escort to Ben Gurion, fly to a destination dictated by the student's personal connections) is structurally different from Notre Dame's group-relocation to London or NYU's group transit to Abu Dhabi
Northeastern's experiential learning footprint — particularly long-term co-op placements — meant the global-safety team had to account for non-classroom students, a category that peer institutions did not consistently track in 2023
Outcome
All three students evacuated safely with university-arranged security details. No Northeastern community casualties. The model — identify, transport-with-security, fly out — became the public template for the university's later 2024 Lebanon and 2026 Iran-strike crisis responses.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    Northeastern students in Israel during Hamas attack safely evacuated with help of university global security team (Northeastern Global News)
    news.northeastern.edu
  2. News
    3 Northeastern University students safely evacuated from Israel amid deadly Hamas attack (CBS Boston)
    cbsnews.com
  3. News
    Northeastern University students safely evacuate Israel amid attacks (Boston Globe)
    bostonglobe.com
  4. Official
    Northeastern global safety team ensures safe travel for students during Middle East turmoil (Northeastern Global News)
    news.northeastern.edu
  5. Source
    2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel (Wikipedia)
    en.wikipedia.org
Tags
evacuationoverseasinternationalisraeltel-avivoctober-7hamas-attackprivate-r1northeasternco-opglobal-safety
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion