LAKEWOOD -Just one month ago Hindy Rozmarin was celebrating her engagement. The young township woman had plans for a wedding in just five months to Menachem Knoblowitz of Queens, New York, according to her family.
But that all disappeared amid the stampede tragedy in Northern Israel that killed Knoblowitz and 44 others at historic Mount Meron on Friday.
Now Rozmarin is facing the future without him.
“They planned so much for life,” Rozmarin’s brother, who declined to give his name, told The Washington Post. “They just wanted to build a nice little home. And everything is gone in two seconds. I just can’t describe the pain.”
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Rozmarin is among thousands of Lakewood faithful picking up the pieces after a tragedy thathas affected most everyone in this township of more than 100,000, even if they didn’t personally know the victims,local leaders say.
The deaths at the Israel pilgrimage landmarkprompted local memorials and a shared sadness during the weekend. Many here havevisited the holy site themselves.
“It was very personal,” said Rabbi Avi Schnall of Lakewood, director of the New Jersey Office of Agudath Israel of America. “We are drawn to tears, to the whole community here. There were several prayers done to honor them and their memory. Every rabbi and every congregation did their own memorial for their congregation this week.”
At least three of the victims who perished in the stampede during the Lag B’Omer holiday in Northern Israel had ties to Lakewood, home to the largest yeshiva outside of Israel,the 6,500-student Beth Medrash Govoha.
Along with Knoblowitz was 21-year-old Dovi Steinmetz, who had attended Yeshiva Keram Shlomo in Lakewood and most recently lived in Canada; and Shraga Gestetner, 35, the brother of Heshu Gestetner, a Lakewood resident and member of a large extended township family, according to several sources and published reports.
“The whole community is engulfed in pain and mourning, it is a very difficult time for us,” Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, a spokesperson for the Lakewood Vaad, a council of elders for the Orthodox Jewish community. “There is going to be a time later to investigate causes and who is to blame and see what we need to do better. Right now we need to reach inward and contemplate and help the pain of the families and the mourning and channel all of that inward and see what we can do.”
Rabbi Sruli Fried, a social worker and regional director for Chai Lifeline, an international support organization based inLakewood, said the group's crises hotline,855-327-4747, has been ringing day and night since the tragedy.
“We have been responding to schools, synagogues and individuals, frantic parents that have children in schools in Israel and are affected by this," Rabbi Fried said. "This tragedy has been a communal tragedy of historic proportions. But at the same time, this has impacted so many on an individual level, everybody knows somebody who was either killed in the tragedy or has a student in Israel who knows someone impacted.”
Rabbi Weisberg explained that the tragedy hits hard in Lakewood on several levels. First, because it involves the unexpected deaths of so many fellow Jewish faithful, most at a young age.
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Add to that the location, a sacred religious landmark that represents faith and hope at a time of its greatest religious meaning, and the impact is strong.
“That is why it is so real, it is a tragedy that hit home, more than others possibly because we know where it was, I know that area,” Weisberg said. “There are probably thousands of Lakewood resident who have been there in the past without incident, a lot of people go there.”
Weisberg said he last visited Mount Meron with his children 25 years ago: “It is like something you do once in a lifetime, it is quite an experience, you are touching history there.”
The site is honored because, among other things, it commemorates Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, a second centurysage and mystic who is buried at the base of the mountain.
“It is a place of pilgrimage all year but on the date of his death, it has become a pilgrimage site and it is a thing to do, especially for American students who are studying in Israel,” Weisberg said. “This was an especially appropriate time because of the past year and Covid-19.”
The tragedy included several U.S. victims, among them Donny Morris, 18, of Bergenfield.
“Mount Meron has a special place in everyone’s heart, so many have traveled there, especially when we were teen-agers traveling to Israel," Fried added. "So many have put themselves there and the horrifying details can be traumatic. There are individuals struggling with supporting their children overseas, that know someone that passed away, saw the videos and they are reaching out to the parents who are thousands of miles away.”
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Rabbi Schnall, who has visited the Meron site three times, did not think this incident would deter future visitors, stating it may have the opposite effect: “I doubt it, people have been going for over 100 years and it has not happened before. This was a fluke.
“I think next year they will be better prepared, I would feel safer,” he said. “Every year that I went it was packed, packed. Now it will be the contrary, you can feel more confident that it will be better planned.”
Joe Strupp is an award-winning journalist with 30 years’ experiencewho covers education and Monmouth County for APP.com and the Asbury Park Press. He is also the author of two books, including Killing Journalism on the state of the news media, and an adjunct media professor at Rutgers University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Reachhim at jstrupp@gannettnj.com and at 732-413-3840. Follow him on Twitter at @joestrupp
