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Mourners carry the body of Shraga Gestetner, a Canadian singer who died during Lag BaOmer celebrations at Mt. Meron in northern Israel, at his funeral in Jerusalem on Friday, April 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Ultra-Orthodox men carry the bodies of Moshe Englander, 14, and his brother, Yehoshua, 9, who died during Lag B Omer celebrations at Mt. Meron in northern Israel, in Jerusalem on Friday, April 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
In a sign of mourning for one who lost a relative, a man cuts the shirt of a child whose father died in Meron tragedy, April 30, 2021 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
Hundreds attend the Jerusalem funeral of David Krauss in Jerusalem, one of the victims of the Meron tragedy, April 30, 2021 (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
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Shraga Gestetner, of Montreal, was killed during the fatal crush at Mt. Meron on April 30, 2021. (screenshot: YouTube)
Hundreds of people answered a call to attend the funeral on Friday of Shraga Gestetner, a Hasidic singer without any immediate relatives in Israel, who was crushed to death in a stampede at Mount Meron the night before.
Rabbi Gestetner, a 35-year-old from Montreal, came to Israel specifically for the Lag B’Omer celebrations, which ended in tragedy when he was among the 45 people killed in what is believed to be Israel’s worst peacetime disaster.
He is survived by his wife and five children. In recent years he had been living in Monsey, New York.
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Silhouettes are seen in front of the logo of US social media Facebook in Brussels, February 14, 2020. (Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP)
Israeli ministers and lawmakers on Wednesday presented tech giants Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter with proposals to beef up the fight against anti-Semitism on social media.
The companies should institute policies similar to those they employ by labeling misinformation surrounding COVID-19 and the US presidential election, the ministers said.
The call came in a policy paper, called “The Hate Factor,” formulated by the Strategic Affairs Ministry and Diaspora Affairs Ministry. The paper was presented to a Knesset panel in the presence of representatives of “major social media networks,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. The statement did not mention any specific social media companies.
Israel
By Yoni Weiss
YERUSHALAYIM -
View of a Knesset plenary session at the Knesset. (Oren Ben Hakoon/POOL)
Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevich informed Blue and White head Benny Gantz on Monday that she will not run in the upcoming Knesset elections.
She is the latest of the Blue and White list to drop the race for the next Knesset. Slates need to be submitted by Thursday night.
Study: Anti-Semitism on The Rise as Pandemic Continues to Rage on
The Israeli Diaspora Affairs Ministry released a study on Tuesday that says that anti-Semitic attacks are likely to surge globally in 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic
The annual report of the ministry released Sunday said that “the rising rates of anti-Semitic sentiment are expected to lead to a significant increase in violence against Jews and Jewish sites in 2021. This is expected to challenge communities around the world, especially the American Jewish community.”
According to the report, the pandemic is being exploited to spread conspiracy theories that Jews allegedly “launched” the COVID-19 outbreak last year to make a profit from it. It also notes that while physical attacks against Jews declined last year due to virus-induced lockdowns, hatred is expected to continue even after the pandemic is over, especially on social media.