Victims of Meron tragedy include 2 sets of brothers, father of 11, 6 US citizens

Most victims identified; at least two families lost multiple children

As names and pictures of the victims from the Mount Meron tragedy emerged on Friday, and some families rushed to bury their dead before the start of the Sabbath, others were still frantically trying to establish whether their loved ones were among the victims.

By Saturday night, at least 42 of the 45 confirmed victims of the tragedy had been identified and their families informed. But the identification process was ongoing, and the task of naming all the victims and informing all the families was expected to be protracted.

Officials said they were conducting multiple checks to ensure that there would be no mistakes. By Saturday night, 34 bodies had been released to their families for burial.

At least two families lost multiple children.

People gather outside the home of a victim of the Meron crush, in the City of Bnei Brak, on April 30, 2021. (Flash90)

Some families learned of their loved ones’ deaths on WhatsApp, according to Channel 12 news, which cited an unnamed woman who learned of her 33-year-old brother’s death in a group about efforts to locate the missing. She told the network she had not yet been contacted by any official source.

Among the victims were people whose families live overseas, further complicating the process. Six of the victims held US citizenship and one was from Argentina. Two were Canadian.

Menahem Zeckbach

24-year-old Menahem Zeckbach of Modiin Illit was buried on Friday afternoon in his hometown of Bnei Brak. He is survived by his pregnant wife and their 1-year-old child.

Menahem Zakbah, 24, of Modi’in Illit was killed during the stampede in Mt. Meron on April 30, 2021. (courtesy)

Simcha Diskind

23-year-old Simcha Diskind of Beit Shemesh was buried on Friday in Haifa. He is survived by his wife and two young children.

Shraga Gestetner

Rabbi Shraga Gestetner of Montreal, Canada came to Israel specifically for the Lag B’Omer celebrations. He was buried in Jerusalem on Friday afternoon; with no immediate family present in Israel to attend the funeral, hundreds who did not know him heeded a call to attend.

A member of the Skverer Hasidic sect, he is survived by his wife and five children. In recent years he had been living in Monsey, New York.

Shimon Matalon

38-year-old Shimon Matalon of Beitar Illit is survived by his eleven children.

Yedidia Hayut

13-year-old Yedidia was from Bnei Brak. He came to the event with his family.

David Krauss

33-year-old David Krauss from the city of Beit Shemesh is survived by nine children.

Moshe Bergman

Moshe Bergman, 24, was originally from Manchester, England. He was studying in the Mir Yeshiva and living in Jerusalem.

Haim Rock

Haim Rock, 19, was from the central city of Beit Shemesh.

Yisrael Anakvah

24-year-old Yisrael Anakvah from Beit Shemesh is survived by his two children.

Eliyahu Cohen

Eliyahu Cohen, 16, was from Beiter Illit.

Hanoch Slod

Hanoch Slod, 52, was from Ashdod.

Elazar Mordechai Goldberg

Elazar Mordechai Goldberg, 37, of Beitar Illit is survived by his four children.

Moshe Ben Shalom

20-year-old Moshe Ben Shalom was from Bnei Brak.

Yedidya Fogel

Yedidya Fogel from Jerusalem studied in a yeshiva in the central city of Ramat Gan.

Yonatan Hebroni

Rabbi Yonatan Hebroni was a father-of-three from the city of Givat Shmuel.

Elhadad Brothers

Moshe Mordechai Elhadad, 12, and Yosef David Elhadad, 18, were residents of Jerusalem.

Brothers Moshe Mordechai Elhadad, right, and Yosef David Elhadad, were killed during the stampede in Mt. Meron on April 30, 2021. (courtesy)courtesy)

Englard Brothers

Moshe Natan Neta Englard, 14, and Yehoshua Englard, 9, were from Jerusalem.

Haim Seler

Haim Seler, 24, of Jerusalem is survived by his wife and 2-week-old daughter.

Yehuda Leib Rubin

Yehuda Leib Rubin, 27, was from Beit Shemesh.

Shmuel Zvi Klagsbald

Shmuel Zvi Klagsbald, 43, is survived by eight children.

Yaakov Elhanan Strikovsky

Yaakov Elhanan Strikovsky, 20, was from Elad.

Yosef Amram Tauber

Yosef Amram Tauber, 19, of Monsey, was a student at the Brisk yeshiva. A relative said that he left for Israel to attend the yeshiva “for the first time last week.”