Mount Meron tragedy: These are the victims of the stampede

Some 45 people were killed on Thursday night after a stampede broke out as massive crowds gathered for the Mount Meron religious bonfire-lighting ceremony to mark the holiday of Lag Ba’omer.Below is a list of the victims, published by haredi (ultra-Orthodox) news sites Bhadrei Haredim, Kikar Hashabat, The Yeshiva World, and Maariv, The Jerusalem Post’s sister paper. 

At least six of the deceased are US citizens, the Foreign Ministry said. Two are Canadian citizens. US President Joe Biden said that the US embassy and State Department were providing all necessary support to their families. 

Israel’s Population Authority opened a direct line of contact for first-degree family members of those injured during the Mount Meron disaster to ease the bureaucratic process of visiting Israel if the family members live abroad.

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 Here is an alphabetical list of the 45 victims of the tragedy:

——————————————————-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 hassid from Betar Illit and a student of the Heichal Avraham Yeshiva.

Simcha Bunim Diskind, 23, was a well-known Gur hassid living in Beit Shemesh. Chen Doron, 41, from Holon. 

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

Two sons of Rabbi Yitzchak Mendel Englard, a Bobov hassid 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 hassidim of Dzikov Vizhnitz, from Jerusalem.

Rabbi Shragi Gestetner, a Skverer hassidic 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 hassid 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 hassid 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 also a US citizen from New York, who had been engaged only two weeks ago to the daughter of Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Rosemarin, also from New York. 

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

Eliezer Yitzchok 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, 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 hassid, 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, 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. 

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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.

The bodies of the deceased were moved from Mount Meron to the L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir on Friday for identification by families who had not yet managed to find their relatives. 

The government declared a national day of mourning on Sunday, May 2. Flags will flown at half mast.

President Reuven Rivlin launched a campaign at the President’s Residence on Friday to help families find their loved ones. 

Rivlin lit 45 candles on Friday afternoon to commemorate the 45 fatalities from Mount Meron reported at the time. 

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 – to cry together,” he said. “This is a hard and painful day. This tragedy is heartbreaking.” 

The President’s Residence campaign will continue into Shabbat: +972-2-6707211

Some 150 were also injured in the tragedy. The Health Ministry released a report on Friday afternoon of the hospitalized patients. 

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