A new survey conducted by the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) and released on Friday revealed which Israelis visit Mount Meron for the holiday of Lag Ba'omer, as part of the institute's Israeli Judaism research project.
According to the data, approximately one quarter of Israeli Jews regularly visit the “Tombs of the Righteous,” while about half of these (14%) say they regularly participate in Lag Ba'omer festivities, which commemorates the death of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai who whose tomb rests on Mount Meron.
Broken down by degree of religious observance, Israelis who identify as "fully secular" hardly visit Mount Meron on Lag Ba'omer, while 3% of those considered "secular, but somewhat traditional" visit Mount Meron, and 9% visit the Tombs of the Righteous.
Some 10% of Jews self-identifying as "traditional" visit Mount Meron "when they can," and almost a quarter (23%) visit the tombs of the righteous.
Applied to raw numbers, 14 out of every 100 Israeli Jews say the go "when they can" to commemorate the anniversary of Shimon Bar Yochai's death on Lag Ba'omer, which accounts for nearly a million Israeli Jews.
In terms of ethnicity, more Israelis self-identifying as Mizrachi are likely to visit the Tombs of the Righteous, reaching around 18%, while 13% of Ashkenazi Jews attend the festivities at Mount Meron
The release of the survey comes following the Mount Meron disaster, which has left 45 dead and at least 150 injured after a stampede took place amid mass gatherings on Thursday night.