Rechasim, Israel – Hours after a father received the news that his daughter will not be accepted into a Bais Yaakov school, he was found dead in a park near the local shul in Rechasim in Northern Israel.
Last night, the levayah was held, with hordes of local residents participating. Sources indicated that the incident was directly related to the man’s daughter being rejected from the local school.
Rabbi Yosef Gigi, a mechutan of the niftar, said, “The city askanim cannot say that ‘our hands did not spill this blood.’”
Rabbi Gigi added that “no one can enter the rooms of the niftar’s heart to know what the cause of his passing was, but the morning of his petirah he received the news that his daughter was not accepted to the school, adding fire to fire, causing great grief to him.”
The niftar wanted to enroll his daughter in the first grade at the local school, but was rejected. He was told to enroll his daughter in the Ohr Chodosh school, a Bais Yaakov primarily for baalei teshuvah and others on the path to teshuvah from more secular backgrounds.
“It is not a regular chareidi school,” said Rabbi Gigi, “but that is where he was told to go.
“True, we are not able to determine how and why he did it, but his last phone call,” said Rabbi Gigi, “was to the Ministry of Education.”
A month ago, his son-in-law said, the niftar wanted to leave Rechasim and settle elsewhere because of problems getting his daughter into a school.
“I’m not saying it is the absolute reason,” he explained, “but there is no one who can say that this did not create deep grief in his soul.”
According to the family, “this girl is the last daughter in the family and her father wanted to see her flourishing and thriving in school.
“During the funeral, people came up to me and thanked me for what I said,” said Rabbi Gigi, who added that he heard numerous additional stories of people being rejected from schools.
The local council issued a statement, saying, “We are shocked and mourn the unfortunate incident that occurred in the community and join in the grief of the family, who are important members of the community.” When news of the tragedy was shared with council head Rabbi Yitzchok Reich, he said that the various council departments would provide the family all the assistance they need.
As for the claims that the reason for the tragedy was the rejection of the girl by the local school, the local council said that they do not “get involved in the registering of students in the community schools, which are privately owned, and with the approval of the Ministry of Education we only intervene if a student has not been accepted into any schools whatsoever.”
