I don't know if you remember, but once upon a time, the Haredi public was in the news on a daily basis for slander and persecution.
It's not that things have gotten better now and we've become the secular public's cup of tea. Not at all. The matter, this time, is much sadder. Since the beginning of this year, the Haredi public has been 'starring' in the media in a completely different and different way. Different and horrifying.
More than twenty severe and shocking disasters of mourning and sorrow have interrupted families and disrupted joys, especially among the ultra-Orthodox community.
It is true that when disasters are far from us, physically and spiritually, we feel them less. But it would be a disaster and a nullification of the positive commandment of "And let the living give it to his heart" if we ignored the horrific figures of children and toddlers who died suddenly, as well as young parents and families.
A dear friend sent me a list of the victims we have suffered in just the last few months - which particularly shocked me. I believe it will move something in your hearts as well.
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Just last Tuesday, a one-and-a-half-year-old toddler, from an ultra-Orthodox family in Kiryat Ata, died after not waking up from his sleep, joining the horrifying list below:
The girl Leah Rosa Friedman, 2 years old, from the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in Jerusalem.
The baby Moshe Rafael Mizrahi, the late - only four months old, is the grandson of Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Aboutbul.
The 6-year-old girl Tehila Ohayon drowned in the pool at the Ramada Hotel.
The girl Esther Toiv, may God have mercy on her, from Betar Illit.
The child Shimon David Freilich, z"l, is 3 years old.
The girl is Tova Brandstetter from Bnei Brak and is 14 years old.
The child Israel Weingarten, z"l from Betar Illit, was run over by a bus while returning with his 6-year-old brother from Haidar and was killed before his eyes.
The girl Racheli Stein, 4 years old, is the granddaughter of Rabbi Menachem Stein, Shlita.
The child Eliyahu Raphael Trav, late of Jerusalem.
The child Shimon Moyal, 4 and a half years old.
Toddler Efrat Trav is one and a half years old.
The late Rabbi Yosef Kofman of Ashdod.
Rabbi Matityahu Sefin, son of the Rebbe of Qumran.
The young Abraha Rabbi Gabriel Mizrahi of Elad.
The late Rabbi Yaakov Elisian
The Gaon Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Bigel, zt"l, rabbi of the Haredi community in Afula.
Rabbi Yitzhak Avitan, late.
The Gaon Rabbi Yehuda Yair, zt"l, one of the greatest preachers of the Shiurim in Jerusalem.
The Gaon Rabbi Zelig Leib Braverman zt"l, the rabbi of the Shaarei Tefila community in Modiin Illit, is 52 years old.
A 16-year-old student at the Gur Yeshiva in Rishon LeZion who fell from a height and was killed.
The woman, Margalit Gafner, from Modi'in Illit.
The woman is Mrs. Batsheva Boymel from Petah Tikva (and now her daughter Tebdalhat is also hospitalized due to the flu).
The ultra-Orthodox woman Chaya Esther Aryeh, may God have mercy on her, from Netivot, contracted swine flu and died a few days later.
Mrs. Sarah Aspis, H.E.
Kindergarten teacher Haya Ayala Rosenberg, may God have mercy on her, passed away suddenly in the midst of a routine day at the children's kindergarten.
Mrs. Chaya Dvora Rosenberg, may God have mercy on her, passed away last Tuesday night, at the age of 46, in the hospital, apparently from a complication of the flu.
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The friend, who collected the data from the media, asked if the list was 'enough' for me or if I preferred the 'full list' which he claimed was almost double. May God have mercy.
And if that wasn't enough for you, here are the following horrifying facts:
Two Haredi women who contracted swine flu are hospitalized in serious condition: Mrs. Shaina Haya, daughter of Rivka Kugel, 38, a resident of Modi'in Illit, mother of seven children, who was hospitalized earlier this week at the Mayanei Hayeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak.
Last week, Aletha Yocheved Yotal, a mother of two from Belza, was hospitalized at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. She was suffering from swine flu and was in serious condition. The name "Alta" was added to her at the behest of the Belza Rebbe, as a virtue for healing and longevity.
It is in your hands, in our hands, to stop the coming tragedies, and to ensure that the disasters that have already happened will not be in vain.
The only way is to become stronger and stop closing your eyes. How do you do that? The answer is absolutely simple: a righteous person knows the soul of his animal, and even more so his own soul.
• Menachem Mann is an ultra-Orthodox journalist and publicist.
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