Meron Tragedy: These are the 45 Victims

Some 45 people were killed on Thursday night after a stampede broke out as massive crowds gathered for the Mount Meron bonfire-lighting ceremony to mark the holiday of Lag Ba’omer.

Below is a list of the victims.

Ariel Ahdut, 21, student of the Yesodot HaTorah yeshiva in Tel Aviv.

Rabbi Yisrael Alnakvah, 24, from Beit Shemesh, was the father of two.

Avrohom Daniel Ambon, 21, was from Argentina and a student of Heichal Yitzchak Yeshiva.

Rabbi Moshe Bergman, 24, from the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Yonoson Chevroni was a student at Givat Shmuel and the father of three.

Yedidyia Chiyuis, 13, from Bnei Brak.
His father, Rabbi Avigdor Chiyuis called for unity. “Yedidyia,” he said, “was righteous and holy, and if he wanted me to say anything, it would be this: ‘We all have something in common, we are Jews. Let’s unite. This is the time and the place.'”

Eliahu Cohen, 16, was a Breslov chossid from Betar Illit and a student of the Heichal Avraham Yeshiva.

Simcha Bunim Diskind, 23, was a well-known Gur chossid living in Beit Shemesh.

Chen Doron, 41, from Holon.

Moshe Mordechai Elchad-Sharf, 12, and his brother Yosef Dovid Elchad-Sharf, 18, from Jerusalem.

Two sons of Rabbi Yitzchak Mendel Englard, a Bobov chossid from Jerusalem: Yehoshua Englander, 9, and Moshe Natan Englander, 14.

Tzadik Mordcha Yoel ben Avrum Yakovm Mordechai Fekete, 23.

Yedida Asher Fogel, 22, a student of the Hesder Yeshiva in Ramat Gan, was originally from Kiryat Moshe in Jerusalem and was living in Givat Shmuel.

Elazar Gefner, 52, was one of the most important chasidim of Dzikov Vizhnitz, from Jerusalem.

Rabbi Shragi Gestetner, a Skverer Rabbi and musician, arrived in Israel from his hometown of Montreal to participate in the Lag Ba’omer celebrations. He was the father of six.
Since his family is not in Israel, the general public was asked to show up at 3 p.m. for his funeral. He was buried in the Har Hamenuhot Cemetery.

Diaspora Affairs Minister Omer Yankelevitch called on the public to attend the funeral: “With a heavy and hurting heart Gestetner’s death was publicized. We will not leave him alone in his last moments.”

Rabbi Eliezar Mordechai Goldberg, 37, was a Szydlowiec Chossid from Betar Illit, and a Talmud Torah teacher and the father of four.

Rabbi Yosef Greenbaum, 22, from Haifa.

Rabbi Eliezer Tzvi Joseph, 26, was a Satmar Chossid from the US and the father of four.

Nachman Kirshbaum, 15, from Beit Shemesh.

Rabbi Shmuel Zvi Klagsbald, 34, from Beitar Illit, was a Torah scholar at Maor Einayim.

Menachem Knoblowitz, was a US citizen from New York, who had been engaged only two weeks ago to the daughter of Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Rosemarin, from New York.

Yossi Kohn, 21, from Cleveland, Ohio, was a student of Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Elazar Yitzchak (Azi) Koltai, 13, formerly from Passaic, New Jersey, lived in Jerusalem.

Rabbi David Krause, 33, father of nine, resident of Beit Shemesh.

Shlomo Zalman Leibowitz, 19, a student at Knesset Yehezkel Yeshiva in Elad and lived in Safed. He was the grandson of the late Rabbi Ozer Drori, owner of Mira Ozer in Bnei Brak.

Yosef Yehuda Levi, 17, from Rekhasim.

Moshe Levy, 14, from Bnei Brak, was a Talmud Torah student.

Yosef Mastorov, 26, was a student of Yeshiva Rinah Shel Torah, from Carmiel.

Rabbi Shimon Matlon, 37, was a Talmud Torah teacher in Beitar.

Yishai Me’ulam, 17, from Rechasim. He had come together with his friend from Rechasim, Yosef Yehuda Levi, listed above.

Daniel (Donny) Morris, 19, from New Jersey. Morris was a student at Shaalvim and was described as a charming student who was hardworking and loved by his friends.

Chaim Rock was a yeshiva student from Beit Shemesh who was studying in the Mir Yeshiva in Modi’in Illit.

Rabbi Yehuda Leib Rubin, 27, from Beit Shemesh, was the father of three.

Rabbi Chaim Ozer Seller, 24, was the father of one and a resident of the Neve Ya’akov neighborhood of Jerusalem. He was a graduate of the Ponevezh Yeshiva.

Moshe Ben Shalom, 21, was a student at the Ponovitz Yeshiva in Bnei Brak.

Elkana Shila, 29, of Jerusalem.

Rabbi Chanoch Solod, 52, was also a Gur Chossid, from Ashdod, where his funeral took place before Shabbat.

Dov Steinmetz, from Montreal, Canada, was a student of Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

Yaakov Elchanan Strakovsky, 20, was a student of Be’er Yisrael Yeshiva in Bnei Brak.

Yosef Amram Tauber was a resident of Monsey, New York, who came to the Brisk Yeshiva in Jerusalem to study.

Rabbi Ariel Tzadik, 56, a Lubavitch chossid from Jerusalem.

Rabbi Moshe Tzarfati, 65, student of the Gaon Rabbi Shalom Arush.

Rabbi Menachem Asher Zeckbach, 24, was a yeshiva student living in Modi’in Illit. His funeral took place Friday and began at his parents’ home in Bnei Brak. Zeckbach left behind his pregnant wife.

In Jerusalem, some of the victims were to be buried in the Mount of Olives cemetery and the rest in the Har Hamenuhot cemetery, the Jerusalem Municipality announced. Others were buried in different places around the country.

Credit: Yated Newspaper

 

A fund has been set up by Vaad HaRabbanim to assist the families whose loved ones were killed in the tragedy.
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