A group of about 20 Mir bochurim planned a trip to Meron, and with Lag B’Omer falling out on Friday, they rented an apartment in the area to stay over Lag B’Omer and Shabbos.
They set out in high spirits on Thursday, traveling together to northern Israel from Yerushalayim.
They arrived at the apartment, unpacked their bags and rested a bit, knowing they would be up all night at Har Meron. As seen below, they also enjoyed a pre-Lag B’Omer kumsitz before setting out to Kever Rashbi.
When Lag B’Omer began, the bochurim joined the hadklaka and the davening, and the singing and dancing at Meron. And then the horrible disaster occurred. And when it was over, two of their friends were missing…
At first, they assumed they would find them, of course. They searched all over the area – once, twice, three times. They called all the hospitals, and they called again, and then again.
As the night wore on, they began to accept the inevitable. And unfortunately, their worst fears were eventually confirmed. The worst had happened, and two of the bochurim they had traveled together with on their Lag B’Omer trip would not be returning to the Mir with them.
Dovi Steinmetz, z’l, 21 , of Montreal, Canada, and Yossi Kohn, 21, z’l, of Cleveland, Ohio, talmidim of the Mir, lost their lives that night in the Meron disaster, leaving their friends bereft and grieving.
Below, Dovi’s friends sing outside the Shamgar funeral home as the tahara is performed prior to the levaya.
Their levayos took place on Sunday.
THE LEVAYA OF YOSSI KOHN Z”L:
THE LEVEYA OF DOVI STEINMETZ Z”L:
[MERON VICTIMS: 24 Bochurim And Boys, 4 Mir Talmidim, At Least 6 US Citizens, 2 Canadians]
[HEARTBREAKING: List Of Niftarim R”L Killed In Meron Crush Released]
[How Exactly Did The Terrible Disaster At Meron Occur?]
[Father’s Heartrending Hesped For His Son: “You’re Now In Rebbe Shimon’s Yeshiva”]
[WATCH: 10-Yr.-Old Meron Survivor: “I Cried Out Shema Yisrael”]
[“People Were Crushed To Death Before My Eyes” – Survivors Of The Harrowing Scenes Talk]
[Chareidi Reporter Warned Of This Very Tragedy In 2018!]
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
6 Responses
The friends singing made me cry. They are so young. It’s horrible. What a tragedy! The song is haunting!
How much crying for children
Young boys
Our boys
Israeli investigation means enough time to WHITE WASH and pretend that they, the police, the government are sorry.
National day of mourning?
One minute of silence?
Who are they kidding?
We also have to fetch up major league.
And must ADOPT AHAVAS CHINAM TO ALL JEWS.
Abselout
Without preconditions.
AHAVAS CHINAM.
Don’t throw stones when you see non religious Jew.
Smile !!
Engage in polite conversation !!
Rasbi was flanked by Hakodosh Baruch Hu for criticizing Jews after he came out of his cave and was told by HaShem to go back until you can tolerate “working Jews”.
Just got news information that
Government and the
Police
Are trying to conclude that Supreme Court is to be blamed for the tragedy.
Why?
Because the SC ALLOW THE CHAREDIM To retain control of the site. (Not for hillula ) but entirely.
Because the the frum Jews control the sanctity of holy site.
A perverse attempt to blame the charedim NOT THE POLICE WHO ALEGEDLY THREATENED TO USE PEPER SPRAY ON THE ON COMING CROWD and would NOT OPEN THE GATE.
I told you this is the way they whitewash tragedy.
THE POLICE HAS NOT YET INTERVIEWED THE OFFICERS AT THE SITE BECAUSE THEY ARE BUILDING A CASE FOR THE NEGLIGENCE OF SC FOR GIVING FRUM ( the victims)
So they want now take Meron and make it into disco utopia.
When a father dies, we try to help by supporting the almana and yesomim. Unfortunately, these boys were not zoiche to leave any children. We can help them by learning l’ilui nishmasam
take a masechta of mishnayos for the Sheloshim https://www.lzechernishmas.com/signup.php?id=8588
or a masechta of gemora for the yahrzeit https://www.lzechernishmas.com/signup.php?id=8589
May the memory of those lost be a beacon of light for all of us
The media needs to stop posting pictures of people sitting shiva and grieving. Have we lost all our sensitivites? Give the aveilim their privacy.