Israel in shock after 45 Jews crushed to death at festival

Bonfires are lit to celebrate the annual festival Lag b’Omer. This fire resembles the Hebrew letter “shin” with three pillars or flames, which looked like a sign from God to some witnesses of the fatal stampede on April 30, 2021. Photo courtesy of Shmuel Rockworth.

JERUSALEM — Israel observed a day of national mourning on Sunday, May 2 for the 45 Jewish worshippers crushed to death in a stampede just after midnight Friday.

It’s the biggest peacetime mass causality in Israel’s 73-year history. More than 150 pilgrims suffered injuries.

An estimated 100,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews had gathered for the joyous annual Lag b'Omer festival near the tomb of the revered Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, a 2nd century sage. His tomb at Mount Meron is the second most visited religious site in Israel after the Western Wall. There were no restrictions placed on the number of pilgrims attending this year. It felt like a return to normalcy after a year of lockdowns. Then tragedy struck.

Ya’acov, a tour guide from Jerusalem who goes to Meron every year for the Lag b’Omer celebration, was traumatized by what he witnessed several hundred meters from the tomb at the bottom of the mountain.

“I was having something to eat in a food hall, and then I heard that something had happened, and it was serious, and that possibly some people had died, which was quite a shock,” said Ya’acov, who asked that his last name be withheld. “Then the music stopped. The joy disappeared.”

The disaster began at 1 a.m. Friday as throngs of pilgrims walked down a narrow walkway with metal flooring that ended in flights of stairs. People began to slip and fall, others fell upon them, and a stampede ensued. Photographs from the staircase showed hundreds of broken glasses, hats, kippot and water bottles dropped in the panic.

The fitness of the walkway, whether it was approved for use and by whom, are matters that a government inquiry is investigating.

Working frantically to identify those killed, staff at the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv released 28 bodies for burial on Friday before the Sabbath began at sunset. The grisly work continued Saturday night, and the remainder were buried Sunday. Included in the dead were two sets of brothers, children as young as 9 years old, and tourists including six Americans, one Canadian and one Argentinian.

“A freeze came over everybody who was there,” Ya’acov said. “All of a sudden, the group consciousness in Meron and then Jews all over the world and all over Israel felt this immense feeling of tragedy.”

Most witnesses Religion Unplugged spoke to did not want to be quoted and were wrestling with how God could allow so many holy people to be trampled at a religious festival. Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? Ya’acov is holding onto hope after seeing what he believes is a sign from God.

Shmuel Rockworth, a photographer, took a picture of the bonfire and an amazing thing happened, Ya’acov said. It’s traditional to dance and light bonfires on Lag b’Omer eve to commemorate the light that Rabbi Yochai brought into the world with his mystical teachings.

“In the background you have the light of Meron. And from the bonfire you have the letter 'shin',” he said. “Totally naturally. I’ve never seen anything like that before… That’s from God.”

The shin is a Hebrew letter which has different meanings, including being steadfast in one’s faith, and visually, looks like three pillars or flames.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem on Friday to donate blood as part of the national blood drive in wake of the disaster. He was joined by the hospital’s director general, Prof. Ofer Merin, who also donated blood.

“Like many citizens of Israel, I have come to donate blood as an act of solidarity with the injured and with the terrible tragedy that occurred here,” Netanyahu said. “At critical times, our people come together and this is also what we are doing now… We [the Israeli government] know that your world has collapsed. We will help you to recover however we can.”

U.S. President Joe Biden called Netanyahu to express condolences, he told the Israeli media.

Who is responsible?

With the burial of the trampled barely underway, the focus has shifted to finding out who is responsible for the overcrowded conditions that led to the fatal stampede.

Multiple reports in Israeli media outlets suggested ultra-Orthodox Members of Knesset had brought immense pressure ahead of the festivities to guarantee that there would be no limits placed on the number of attendees. While some 100,000 pilgrims ultimately attended the festival, a protocol drawn up by the Health Ministry in consultation with other government officials, police and others, would have limited the event to 9,000 participants. That plan was not implemented.

Officials with knowledge of the investigation told Israel’s Channel 13 that cabinet ministers had pressed police to allow an unlimited number of worshippers to enter the holy site, saying this was in compensation for last year’s lockdown of the celebration due to coronavirus restrictions on public assembly.

A Channel 11 news report also said the police were blaming a Ministry of Religious Affairs’ safety engineer, who approved security arrangements for the festivities and who, the report said, earlier in the week checked the walkway where the fatal stampede occurred.

According to Channel 12, the head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party Aryeh Deri sent an official request to Public Security Minister Amir Ohana ahead of the event, saying that “anyone who wants to come [to Meron] should be allowed to do so.”

Ohana, who is responsible for Israel’s police, approved the request for an unlimited number of attendees, despite pleas from health officials concerned about coronavirus transmission.

In the two days since the tragedy, evidence has emerged that warnings about the dangers involved in the annual gathering have been ignored for years, including in two reports by the State Comptroller.

A 2008 State Comptroller report warned of “systemic failure at the Rashbi [Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai] compound” at Meron, due to “many different authorities all involved in its management,” noting that the chaotic situation would lead to harm to the holy site as well as endanger worshipers.

In an additional comptroller report from 2011, it was once again emphasized that the site was underprepared for receiving hundreds of thousands of people. “The existing situation should not be allowed to continue — including the neglected structure where [certain] groups do as they wish, to the abandonment of a site of great importance, both nationally and religiously,” the state comptroller said.

A 2016 police report also warned of trouble ahead. Commander Ilan Mor, head of the operational branch of the national traffic police, produced a report titled, “Meron celebrations: Erasing the writing on the wall.” The document analyzed past tragedies caused by overcrowding at public events, including near-disasters at Meron itself, and concluded that the infrastructure at the holy site could not safely accommodate the numbers of worshipers that attended each year at Lag b’Omer.

In the report, Mor called to limit the number of people attending and to appoint a single organizer to manage the site, instead of allowing each hassidic sect to run its own area.

Shlomo Levy, former head of Merom HaGalil Regional Council where Mount Meron and the tomb complex of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai are located, told Ynet that he for years tried to improve the conditions at the mountain, but to no avail.

Deciding the future of the mountain is more important in the long term than determining who is responsible for last week's events, Levy said.

"What will be the fate of the place? What should be done in my opinion, as someone who was dealing with this matter for 10 years, is to expropriate the place from the hands that have it in a chokehold. There is corruption, there is money, there is ego, there is everything - except for the fear of God," he said. "This place must be expropriated from the hands of all the Hasidim, of all the rabbis."

About Lag b’Omer

According to rabbinic legend, Lag b’Omer – the 33rd day of the seven-week counting between Passover and Shavuot (Pentecost) – was when a plague finally ended which had killed 24,000 students of the sage Rabbi Akiva (c. 50–135 CE), ostensibly because of their indulgence in gossip and rivalry. Traditionally Jews celebrate with bows and arrows, in reference to the Bar Kochba revolt of 132-135 CE which Rabbi Akiva endorsed, and for which the Romans flayed him alive and murdered other scholars of the Mishna. Other customs include eating carob fruit and giving 3-year-old boys their first hair cut.

READ: Lag b’Omer: the Jewish festival of faith and folklore

The most popular part of the celebration is lighting bonfires all across Israel. Traditionally the biggest one is at the tomb of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, ordained by Rabbi Akiva and similarly caught up in the genocidal persecution of Emperor Hadrian. 

After the execution in Caesarea of his teacher, bar Yochai and his son Eleazar fled to a cave in the remote hills of the Upper Galilee. According to tradition, they remained hidden there for 12 years, sustained by the fruit of a carob tree, studying the Torah. Bar Yochai is credited with writing the Zohar, a mystic commentary on the Pentateuch and a classic text of kabbalah, an ancient Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Bible. He emerged from his refuge as an ascetic charismatic master of learning and miracles. The Midrash credits him with having "revived the Torah at that time." He died on Lag b'Omer, becoming a legendary figure in the lore of Jewish mysticism and folk religion.

In the 16th century, mystics from the kabbalist colony of Safed initiated the custom of the annual Lag b'Omer hilula (meaning pilgrimage but literally wedding feast) to the nearby tomb of Shimon bar Yochai at Mount Meron. In recent years, upwards of 200,000 people have come on this early summer holiday, pitching tents, making bonfires, grilling meat and reciting Psalms in a unique expression of faith and folk belief.

Implicit in the pilgrimage is the kabbalist principle that the death of a sage is the reunion of his soul with God — a kind of spiritual marriage. Joy rather than grief marks the anniversary of his passing, in direct proportion to the rabbi's reputation as a saint and miracle worker. The grave, in anticipation of the messianic rebirth of the dead, becomes the site of veneration and feasting.

Gil Zohar was born in Toronto, Canada and moved to Jerusalem, Israel in 1982. He is a journalist writing for The Jerusalem Post, Segula magazine, and other publications. He’s also a professional tour guide who likes to weave together the Holy Land’s multiple narratives.