Mount Meron
Donny Morris’s aunt says a number of initiatives both in Israel and the family’s hometown of Bergenfield, N.J., have been created to keep his memory alive.
The April 30, 2021 disaster at the Lag B’Omer festival left 45 dead and 150 wounded. With this year’s gathering only days away, the plaintiffs’ lawyer contends the state has learned nothing from the tragedy.
The Supreme Court ruled that the state has the right to destroy six structures built illegally in the area around the gravesite.
Israeli Police deployed 3,000 officers including Border Police to direct crowds and control traffic. Despite some scuffles and momentary losses of control, security personnel prevailed to maintain order.
The Jerusalem-born justice was head of the committee investigating the Mount Meron stampede and a member of the panel of judges that convicted Shas leader Aryeh Deri.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett promises to “study the report’s conclusions in-depth” to ensure that future Lag B’Omer festivities are handled “completely differently.”
The holiday marked by Jewish calamities associated with internecine strife is an annual reminder to move past the divisiveness of politics, enmity and isolation.
The commission of inquiry set a deadline of about six weeks for its work, which will be held in close cooperation with Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who ordered a criminal investigation into the deadly stampede.
“The establishment of a state commission of inquiry is a moral debt to the Israeli public,” says Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
Organized under the auspices of a volunteer organization called “Imahot L’Maan Imahot” (“Mothers Supporting Mothers”), the gathering took place at the Dan Family Aish World Center near the Western Wall in the Old City, almost exactly one month after the tragedy at Mount Meron.
Investigating the tragedy that left 45 people dead and 150 injured in a stampede during the Lag B’Omer festival is imperative, says Israel’s defense minister.
Families who lost loved ones could be allocated up to 130,000 shekels ($40,000) per casualty; in a letter to the Knesset Finance Committee head, National Insurance Institute director cites the Versailles wedding venue accident as precedent.
