8:13PM IL: (ALL UPDATES BELOW) Details are a bit sketchy as the event is still ongoing. YWN-Israel has received first-hand information from the scene regarding a police hunt taking place at this time in the Bucharin/Geula area, for the body of a 25-year-old female.
About an hour ago, MDA dispatched a paramedic unit to an abandoned building on Rabeinu Gershon Street in Bucharin. They pronounced the female dead. It was first reported that police suspected foul play, but in actuality, the policeman on the scene stated he did not think an autopsy would be performed.
It must be added that a patrol car was dispatched and the team arrived, a male and female officer. As the car arrived, the area was filling with curiosity seekers, all appearing chareidi in their outer garments. The policeman seems to have instructed his female partner to remain in the vehicle, perhaps using good judgment, avoiding a conflict with the frum residents by the presence of the female officer.
It appears the policeman did not really have a handle on what was taking place and before he knew it, about 15 males entered the ground floor of the abandoned structure where the body was. While one or two of the chareidim pushed the policeman into the corner, they occupied him for enough time for the others to make off with the body, in the name of preventing an autopsy. Reports that the body was transported to Shamgar Funeral Home appear to be inaccurate. The body was taken from the abandoned building.
It also appears that the body of the female is not someone who was known locally, but nevertheless, those involved appear to have believed due to the victim’s young age an autopsy was imminent, prompting them to make off with the corpse. At present, there is a considerable police presence in the area, plainclothes and undercover units as the search for the body and the perpetrators continues.
It appears police are a bit more than startled to just how quickly these residents are informed of the area goings-on and how quickly they mobilize on a stormy night.
While the policewoman was locked in the vehicle, the crowd managed to slash the vehicles tires, preventing that car from going after the body-snatchers.
YWN-Israel has just received a report that MDA has dispatched an ambulance to a home were someone believes seeing “people carrying an unconscious body”. Police suspect this may be the body.
This is somewhat similar to a body-snatching report in Ashdod, in which police were standing guard over the room where the body was and when they entered, they learned that people cut the metal window bars and made off with the body. In that case, the body was not recovered.
UPDATE 8:47PM IL: It appears police reinforcements are arriving as police prepare to break into a yeshiva where they believed the body is.
YWN-Israel reminds readers that details provided appear accurate at this time, as the situation unfolds, and changes are likely once the true facts in the case are learned. YWN-Israel will continue to provide coverage for this breaking story.
UPDATE 9:53PM IL: It appears that as a result of the intervention and mediation efforts of R’ Bentzi Oring, a senior Zaka official, an agreement has been reached with police by which the corpse will be returned and no autopsy will be carried out.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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19 Responses
oih! H’ yishmereinu!!
I’m hoping most of this is not true…
Zak”a is amazing – in so many ways!
I just passed by. There are obviously no fires. It is raining in yerushalayim.
I don’t get it. Do these folks think they’re doing a mitzvah here? And we wonder why the chilonim hate us.
Why do the police negotiate with these criminals? Body snatching is a serious matter. The police should have called in the anti-terror units and shown who is boss.
Why would these so called charedim steal a body not known to them and why would they take it to a yeshiva? suspicious? conspiracy?
#5,6, and 7 yes this was a mitzva as the authorities are known to perform autopsies. Let’s just hope something like this never happens to someone you know or are related to but if chas veshalom it does you too would be happy that these “body snatchers”, “criminals” and “so-called chareidim” stole the body to bring it to proper burial according to halacha.
this and other events like it are a presage to the inevitable future events that will occur if the state does not do something to stop the fundamentalist fanatics.
this demographic is growing at an alarming rate, and is made up of people who believe that they should not work, they should not contribute, they should do whatever need be done to end the secular state and replace it with an authoritarian religious regime, based on theocratic principles.
they have more children than the non religious and the modernist religious jews, and it has already gotten to the point where the government will capitulate to the will of the rabbis, and as we saw in the iranian revolution, this is the first step in the full replacement of a secular state with a religious one.
it is incumbent upon us, as free thinkers, to do whatever we can to stop this before the corrupted, corroded yoke of ‘charedism’ is forcibly placed upon our necks. we must act before the wild eyed masses decide that bloodshed is needed to enforce their will.
we must not stand silent in the cold, dark shadow of fanaticism.
navonim unite.
hanavon,
I am not taking sides in this particular story but I am troubled by your comments as it seems you are pro-autopsy.
Does it not bother you that the “Jewish” state allows autopsies and doesn’t use the new scanning available?
Does it really bother you that people are having children and not practicing birth control?
You call yourself a “free thinker” yet your “thoughts” seem to go against what the Torah wants E”Y to be which is yet another reason why Moshiach isn’t here yet. You don’t want the country to be a “religious” state yet that’s exactly what it was during the days of the Bais HaMikdosh and what it will be y’mos haMoshiach.
You dont want a theocracy yet thats what we WILL have when Moshiach Ben Dovid comes and we have a Melech on us again in EY.
Watch what you wish for because you have it already. With your words, I am sorry to say, you will be like the 4/5 of Klal Yisroel that didnt make it out of Mitzrayim.
to no. 9:
“us freethinkers”
Who cares what you think
you’re on the wrong site
Just as the economists in freakonomics identified and attributed a strong correlation between the drop in crime in America in the last decade to the supreme court decision in Roe v. Wade,
so too,
must there be a greater, positive awareness within our social circles to the acceptability (subject to rabbinic approval, of course) of the use of contraceptive methods.
This could greatly reduce the strains our communities face due to overpopulation that result in the inability to sustain a productive and functional society.
I believe that this is a topic that most of our community leaders would agree is a necessary one to raise awareness about (especially once ‘Pru u’rivu’ has been fulfilled), and hope that it can only lead to positive responses and discussion.
# 10 and # 11:
while i do understand that we must respect the dead, and that when an old person passes away there is no need for an autopsy, we all must realize that in cases of murder, h’y’r, autopsies are necessary in order to protect the kavod for the meis, and in order to protect us, b’e’h, from people who might hurt us.
as for scanning techniques, they are not as accurate, and the technology is very new. forensic pathologists often look for things that would not come up with digital scanning.
r’ moshe feinstein, z’tz’l writes very clearly that in instances where the meis needs to be dissected for the kavod ha’meis, it is muttar, and he brings a reya from the pilegesh m’givah, in which case it was a kavod for the meis to be cut up and sent to different areas.
as for your claim that it bothers me that they have so many children and do not practice birth control, you clearly misunderstood everything i’ve said. it is not a problem to have many children, we should all try to fill the world up with beautiful jewish children, however it is immoral to bring children into the world and not to work! tov torah im derech eretz! we were created to work, jews have always worked, and we should not try to create a situation in which we are dependent upon state money, or money from the kehilla if we can work. this can only lead to trouble.
as for your notion that we will have a theocratic state when moshiach comes ,b’e’h’bekarov, we will have a state run by naviim who can communicate directly with the deity, not by a bunch of uneducated kenoi’im who think that they know what hashem wants and tell their followers to destroy other peoples property.
when moshiach does come, we will not have a theocracy in its classical sense, we will not be a state run purely by torah law, as the rashba says (sh’ v’tsh, ch’g, 393) because if we adjudicate issues based solely upon torah law, we would destroy the world. we will have an economy run by economists, we will have a medical system run by doctors, etc.
my point is that we cannot have a viable system being run by rabbis who tell their talmidim to start fires and physically harm others! this represents a danger for the jews.
Bentzi Oiring does it again. Bentzy Oiring is my hero. What this man accomplishes on a daily basis is beyond belief. What the public hears about is but a fraction of the holy work Bentzi does. May Hashem bless him and his family with only good.
Thank G-d there are still some sane “chareidim” around like Bentzy Oiring. The idiots in Meah Shearim and Beit Shemesh are a major embarrassment to am Yisroel
“And we wonder why the chilonim hate us”
Sorry to disapppoint you, the chilonim aren’t the one that are kovei’a what’s chilul hashem, Hashem is! And right now he’s saying look how important my mitzvos are to the chareidim.
A 25 y/o dead in not an every day situation. It very well could of been a crime scine. By taking the body, they compromise the security of the neighborhood. While autopsy could be avoided, investigation is a must.
Why did they snatch the body; because they know what would happen in the end. If they would work
with the charedi; they would have left the body there and after the police did there investigation
they would permit zaka to move the mes for a MRI
before proper burial. If the police get their hands on a mes than it become a futile argument.
It’s sad to see all the posts here and most people do not know what goes on here in Israel. In the US there is law and order. It easier to prevent an autopsy in the US then in Israel. Israel has a track record of doing an autopsy when ever they can. There is no way of working with the police/gov. here. The only time they seem to respond is to violence. While a 25 y/o female dead is not an every day occurrence there are ways around doing an autopsy. The people that were there that snatched the body did it based on previous experience. If you knew that some one was going to hurt a child of yours you would do everything right or wrong to protect them. According to halacha autopsies are not allowed. They were following halacha. If the Torah says something they don’t come up with excuses as to why they can’t do it. They just do it. Halevay we should be as strong as they are.
In Israel there is not much negotiation on the “lower level”. The police feel that they are above and beyond the law when it comes to many things. This seems to be something that people out side of Israel do not seem to understand.