The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Thursday rejected the police’s request to remove the daycare owner and her assistant from their homes in Jerusalem and released them to house arrest.
Instead of the 15 days requested by the police, the court ordered them to house arrest for nine days.
On the other hand, the court accepted the police’s request and ordered a prohibition on contacting the children’s parents for one month, as well as a ban on working with children for a period of one and a half months.
Chani Katz, who lost her baby Ari, z’l, came to testify in court during her shiva week on behalf of the daycare workers.
“I lost my son,” she began. “I’ve known the babysitters for seven years; I sent all my children to them. We’re like family. My children always loved going there. We’re really friends, and I know exactly who they are, and I’m the most anxious mother in Jerusalem.”
She added, “I hadn’t planned to send him to a permanent daycare, and the night before, I hesitated about where to place my precious treasure. I debated between my family and the babysitter, and I decided on her because I was the calmest in the world. The gezeirah was from Shamayim. He had to pass away on that day and at that hour, and Hashem did me a kindness that he wasn’t niftar in my home.”
The daycare owner’s attorney said during the hearing: “At most, there may be negligence here—and why ‘may’? Because even the great and powerful Israel Police, the prosecution, the hospitals, and the Institute of Forensic Medicine still don’t know what caused the deaths of the two children in this terrible tragedy.”
“Since they themselves don’t know, it’s impossible to say whether there was any human intervention. They themselves do not know! She woke a baby to feed her and discovered, to her horror, that the baby was no longer alive. She did everything in her power to help her, and afterwards the other baby as well.”
The cause of the babies’ deaths has not yet been definitively determined.
The police said that they are probing the babysitters on charges of reckless manslaughter and negligent supervision of a child, and on Thursday morning, the police added further suspicions: physical or psychological abuse of a minor, assault of a minor, and leaving a child without supervision. However, the police did not provide evidence for the new suspicions.
Meanwhile, parents whose children attended the daycare published a public letter on Wednesday expressing support for the babysitter.
In the letter, issued on behalf of parents of children and toddlers who currently attend or have attended the daycare in previous years, the parents described the babysitters’ personal attention, dedication, and responsibility, saying that each child received individual care, meals were provided on time, and parents received detailed daily updates about their children’s day.
The parents further noted that over the years, they were satisfied with the care at the daycare, chose to entrust their babies to the babysitters, and felt a strong bond between the children and the staff, adding that the children’s joy in coming to the daycare and the love they showed for it were clearly evident.
“And all the rumors and suspicions and reports published contrary to Din Torah and against the laws of the state are nothing but lies and delusions published by irresponsible people who are spilling innocent blood,” the letter concludes.
The letter states that since the letter was published quickly, before the court hearing, the list of parents who signed it is partial.
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
We must stand strong against the anti semitic anti religious government that is looking to destroy Torah Judaism in so many ways. Now they are using the army to try in get young religious Jews to mix with secular girls and be under the influence of leftist elite army bums who use religious soldiers as cannon fater. Why is it that over forty per cent of dead soldiers are religious ones. Why isn’t there an investigation how these elite army leftist force religious soldiers into buildings with terrorist instead of just bombing the whole building from the air. It is a battle we must continue to fight on all fronts.
Wow unbelievable! None of the self-hating Jews who are so quick to jump in and condemn in the harshest terms a frum babysitter before verifying any facts have anything to say on this post!! Have you no shame?? Speak to people in the neighborhood who vouch for this woman’s devotion and care before you swoop in and spout complete lies about her.
Sounding like Crib death/Cot death, which surely is solely גזירת השם & out of the control of mankind
How many babies were under the care of two babysitters? The letter has 25 signatories and implies there are more.
Any sane person understands that 50+ babies can’t be safely watched, fed, held, kept safe by 2 people in a tiny place without 50 cribs and help to feed and change diapers and have air and place to move and sleep safely. Very fascinating this new form of Yiddishkeit. Protecting life and guarding life is so important and except when a Jew dies by another Jew, suddenly it’s not important to safeguard life. Same for Giluy Arayos and adultery, it’s terrible until a Jew does molesting, then suddenly it’s not bad and rabbis come out to protect the perpetrators and the Jewish victims don’t matter.
עד מתי?
My post was censored-why? Is truth not acceptable in Yiddishkeit any longer?? Any sane person knows that 50 babies each need a safe place to sleep a crib, a place to crawl, fresh air to breathe, and someone to feed him- you can’t have over 50 babies in one room with only 2 caregivers!! Either we have a Torah that values life and safeguards life or we don’t- we value life!
To Leahleh
It’s was 12 babies in her care. The other babies were gathered from different apartments in the building. These women did not beat or abuse the babies. They are know women for years.
Why are people so quick to judge based on a garbled collection of disinformation and conjecture? There were a number of women who babysat in the building. All those babies weren’t in one home!! It’s just that when the building was evacuated because of a suspected gas or toxic leak, there were over 50 children taken outside. The petition is from parents who are current and past, and also, some parents are occasional, while others are steady, like any daycare.
Flatbush Yid- Really, that’s a lie, there were 50 babies in that apt on the floor all over the place even in the bathroom.
And when YOU have a baby, unless you have twins, you have 1 baby at a time to take care of, sometimes 2. One person can’t feed, take care, keep safe 50 babies, or 30 babies or 12 babies at a time. Babies take time to feed, burp, change diaper, spit up, hold, clean, pat to sleep, put down properly to sleep in a safe crib. Each baby needs at least an hour to do that or they can choke on their spit up. How can you do that with 50 or 20 or 12 babies?? Unless there are cameras you do NOT KNOW what is happening there! They “knew” her!? It’s that she was cost very little, she was CHEAP ! But it was not SAFE!!! Now to defend this dangerous cheap baby care they say the baby was meant to die?!? So why do we have mothers, doctors, Medicine, Hatzolah, safety rules, if people should just Die just die! That’s not Yiddishkeit, that’s an abomination of our Torah of Life !!!
@lealeh: STOP JOINING THE ANTI-CHAREIDY LYING MEDIA – 50 BABIES WERE TAKEN FROM ALL OVER THE BUILDING – THE BABY IN THE BATHROOM WAS PUT THEIR BY HATZOLOH TO GET HIM/HER OUT-OF-THE WAY DURING CPR!!
25 PARENTS SIGNING THE LETTER DOES NOT MEAN THEIR BABIES WERE THEIR AT THE TIME; IT MEANS THEY USED THE FACILITY IN THE PAST – SHAME ON YOU SPREADING HATE AND LIES!
RESPONSE: Two Babies DYING, found Dead, with other babies in poor condition, in a Baby Day Care is extremely serious. Saying they were “meant to die “ is a distortion of Yiddishkeit. No baby has to die on Day Care, if the babies have adequate supervision and care and are watched properly, as we have Hatzolah to
Provide life saving care. Why have Hatzolah or medics to rescusitate babies and clear blocked airways, if you ascribe to Neitze Fatalism that people are meant to die. Babies who are put to sleep on lumpy mattresses or are put down without burping or have their mouths blocked by their clothes or face down are at risk of being smothered or choking. Whatever your feelings about police and courts, should not lead you to excuse so bizarrely a dangerous deadly day care situation- 2 babies literally dead, not even in distress – literally dead means something was WRONG. The parents are supporting this because they themselves gave their babies to this crowded understaffed place for very cheap cost and want it to continue. It’s you who are making up stories that babies were taken from other places- they know who was there, the medics did not put any baby on the floor in a bathroom to make room that’s the stupidest thing you can say- they took all the live babies out. When you show such little care for Jewish LIFE out of hatred for police it makes you look really bad. No matter what we feel
About Police, we still need to always do the right thing to Safeguard and preserve LIFE.