Following the tragedy on Mount Meron last week in Israel, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer visited families in New York who lost a loved one to express his condolences as they sit shiva (Jewish period of mourning).
The families of the victims sat for the week of shiva, the Jewish rituals of mourning during which the bereaved receive visits and attentions in the memory of the lost ones.Among the 45 people killed in the crush of bodies at the Lag Ba'omer celebration in northern Israel were at least six Americans with ties to the New York area. Some of their families had then to sit shiva abroad, in their home cities.
On a video published on Twitter, he can be heard telling the family: "I have deep faith in Hashem.”
“I have deep faith in Hashem”- Senator Chuck SchumerOn a Shiva call to a family who lost a loved one at the Meron Tragedy pic.twitter.com/4rocLudDLR
— Jack Langer (@jacklanger) May 6, 2021
Schumer is a the Jewish Democrat from New York and he became Senate Majority leader in January when the Democrats retook the Senate after US President Joe Biden was inaugurated.
Approximately 90,000 people - mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews - had thronged to the Mount Meron tomb of 2nd-century sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai for annual Lag Ba'omer commemorations that include all-night prayer, mystical songs and dance. The stampede began near the bonfire of the Toldot Aharon hassidic sect, which is based in Jerusalem.