Miami Jew foreshadowed car crash suicide in Facebook post
Tzvi Ference battled depression for years, was banned from university for harassment and had been asked to 'keep distance' from local synagogue
Twenty-six-year-old Tzvi Ference committed suicide Monday by driving head-on into traffic on the Miami turnpike, three days after hinting to his intentions in a Facebook post.
At around 11:40 p.m., Ference slammed into the right side of an 18-wheeler driven by 30-year-old Yadian Palomino-Leyva while heading north in the southbound lanes of the highway, according to the Miami Herald.
Ference’s 2009 Hyundai Accent crumpled on impact, and came to rest on its roof while the huge truck jackknifed and hit a guardrail on the turnpike’s west shoulder.
Ference, who was not wearing a seat belt, was killed on the spot and pronounced dead upon arrival of medical aid.
Three days before his death, Ference posted on Facebook an account of a near-suicide at the turnpike, which he didn’t carry out due to being overwhelmed by religious emotion.
“15 minutes after I started driving I was almost onto the turnpike. I started saying Shema Yisrael [a Hebrew prayer that translates to ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one’]. First slowly then faster and over and over again,” Ference wrote in the post.
“I was overcome with such emotion that I started crying. Crying hysterically to Hashem [God] to help me. To help me with my pain. I was crying so hard and there were so many tears. I pulled over at the entrance to the turnpike and cried nonstop for over 10 minutes.”
According to a December post on Ference’s blog, an open account of his battle with depression and suicidal thoughts, he had attempted suicide seven times up to that point.
On Saturday, he posted about an incident at temple in which security guards turned him away from prayer.
“I was trying to reach out to the Rabbi and other members because I was feeling lonely and depressed. Instead of receiving calls back I was ignored and they felt threatened by me reaching out for help,” he wrote on Facebook.
Marc Philippe, the rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Miami Beach, commented on the post to the Sun Sentinel, saying that Ference had recently been asked to take a two-month break from attending the synagogue after complaints by some congregants of harassment. He did not state the nature of the allegations.
In April 2012 the University of Miami banned Ference from its campus, calling him a former student “who has repeatedly harassed university students and officials.”
According to Ference’s sister, Bracha, Tzvi had been battling depression for years, and had been on various medications and therapy since he was 16.