Long before Covid-19 arrived in Israel, devastating Israel’s Hasidic communities, the annual Lag B’Omer gathering at Mount Meron was a moment of release for Israel’s Orthodox Jews, a festive night marking the end of a religious period of mourning.
And this year, when that release was especially needed after a year of loss, it became yet another tragedy.
“The joy of our heart has ceased, our dancing has turned into mourning,” read the front page of Yated Ne’eman, a haredi newspaper, on Friday morning.
The headline is a verse from Lamentations, the biblical book read on Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish religious calendar.
Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews attend the funeral of Yehuda Lev Lubin in Jerusalem, one of the victims of the Meron tragedy, where 45 people were crushed to death in Meron, northern Israel, April 30, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
JTA Long before COVID-19 arrived in Israel, devastating Israel’s Hasidic communities, the annual Lag B’Omer gathering at Mount Meron was a moment of release for Israel’s Orthodox Jews, a festive night marking the end of a religious period of mourning.
And this year, when that release was especially needed after a year of loss, it became yet another tragedy.
Thousands of Haredi Jews died in the pandemic. And on Thursday night, at least 45 more ultra-Orthodox Jews were killed in a stampede at Mount Meron, with dozens more injured.