Top Haredi journalist: The state has to take control and organize Mount Meron

As police and Justice Ministry officials announce the launch of investigations into the tragedy at Mount Meron, some influential ultra-Orthodox journalists are calling for introspection within their own community as well.

“Our community also has a duty to learn lessons” from the disaster, Yossi Elituv, editor of the Mishpacha weekly and host of a radio show on Israel Radio, says on Twitter.

Elituv lashes the chaotic division of the pilgrimage area between various competing Hasidic sects as part of the problem that led to last night’s tragedy.

“Our first and immediate task, to free Mount [Meron] from the control” of the sects.

“Rabbi Shimon [Bar Yochai, the second-century sage commemorated at the site,] is the spiritual asset of the entire Jewish people, not of any private body. The state needs to establish a professional authority to run the site according to the following principle: the public welfare and the safety of the worshipers.”