At least 45 people were killed on Thursday night after a stampede broke out as massive crowds gathered at the Mount Meron religious bonfire-lighting ceremony for the holiday of Lag Ba’omer.Below is a list of the victims, published by Haredi news sites Hadrei Haredim and Kikar Hashabat. The list will continue to be updated, as not all 45 of the victims have been identified.
Shragee Gestetner, a Skverer hassidic rabbi and musician, arrived in Israel from his hometown of Montreal, Canada to participate in the Lag Ba’omer celebrations.
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 come to the funeral: “With a heavy and hurting heart Gestetner’s death was publicized. We will not leave him alone in his last moments.”
Israel’s Population Authority has opened a direct line of contact for first-degree family members of those injured during the Mount Meron disaster, which would ease the bureaucratic process of visiting Israel if the family members live abroad, Ynet news reported on Friday.
The Authority stated that as part of the initiative, the requests must be sent through the Border Control Administration at the e-mail address: harigim-natbag@piba.gov.il.
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Rabbi Yisrael Ankawa, 24, was a father of two from Beit Shemesh.
Rabbi Menachem Asher Zachbach, 24, was a yeshiva student living in Modi’in Illit. His funeral occurred left from the home of his parents in Bnei Brak.
Chaim Rak was a yeshiva student from Beit Shemesh who was studying in the Mir Yeshiva in Modi’in Illit.
Yosef Amram Tauber, was a resident of Monsey, New York, who came to the Brisk Yeshiva in Jerusalem to study.
Eliahu Cohen, 16, was a Breslov hassid from Betar Illit.
Rabbi Shimon Matlon, 37, was a Talmud Torah teacher in Betar.
Rabbi Simcha Bunim Diskind, 23, was a well-known Gur hasid living in Beit Shemesh.
Rabbi Eliezer Tzvi Yoza’af, 26, was a Satmar hassid from the US. He was a father to four children.
Rabbi Hahoch Slod, 52, was a Gur hassid from Ashdod, where his funeral took place before Shabbat.
Rabbi Elazar Mordechai Goldberg, 37, was a Szydlowiec hassid from Betar Illit, and a Talmud Torah teacher. He was a father to four children. Moshe Ben Shalom, 21, was a student at the Ponovitz Yeshiva in Bnei Brak. Yedida Asher Poleg, 22, a student of the Hesder Yeshiva in Ramat Gan, originally from Kiryat Moshe in Jerusalem, who was living in Givat Shmuel before the accident.Two sons of Rabbi Yitzchak Mendel Englard, a Bobov hassid from Jerusalem, were killed as well.
Eight out of the 44 Mount Meron casualties will be buried on Friday before Shabbat in Jerusalem.
Some will be buried in the Mount of Olives cemetery and the rest in the Har Hamenuhot Cemetery, the Jerusalem Municipality announced.
The bodies of the deceased were moved from Mount Meron to L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir for identification by families who had not yet managed to find their relatives.
They began to arrive on Friday, which was jointly operated by Abu Kabir and Israel Police.
Police blocked off traffic to open up the space for the families to easily arrive, and a tent was set up for them outside of the building, Maariv, the sister publication of The Jerusalem Post, reported.
President Reuven Rivlin launched a campaign on behalf of President’s Residence on Friday to garner help identifying individuals whose families haven’t been able to reach them yet.
Rivlin lit 45 candles on Friday afternoon to commemorate the 45 victims reported at the time from Mount Meron. 
President Reuven Rivlin lighting 45 candles in honor of the victims from Mount Meron, April 30, 2021. (Credit: MARK NEYMAN/GPO)
President Reuven Rivlin lighting 45 candles in honor of the victims from Mount Meron, April 30, 2021. (Credit: MARK NEYMAN/GPO)“This is the time to hug the families and to help them find their loved ones,” he said, “to cry together.
“This is a hard and painful day. This tragedy is heartbreaking.”
The President’s Residence campaign will continue into Shabbat: 02-6707211
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