In a pathetic display of ignorance, the Israeli secular media made nothing of the massive kiddush Hashem today at Maran Rav Chaim Kanievsky’s levayah, one of the largest funerals in Israel’s history. Haaretz reports that 350,000 people attended the levayah, despite the fact that accurate estimates put the number at about 750,000.
At the same time, the likes of Haaretz, Yediot Achronot, The Jerusalem Post and others all focused their levayah reports on the fact that “dozens” were “lightly hurt” during the levayah. This is actually an astonishing fact. In light of the size of the crowd, it is truly astounding that only a few dozen sustained light injuries, but the secular media reports made no mention of this detail, instead reporting on, in one instance, that “Emergency services treated at least one police officer and 46 mourners were wounded in the mass crowded event blocking the entire city of Bnei Brak. All were treated on the spot by Magen David Adom teams and none required hospitalization.”
All the secular reports focused, even after the levayah, on the Meron tragedy. For example, Ynet reported: “‘We must make sure there will be no mass casualties,’ [Prime Minister Naftoli] Bennett said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. ‘The memory of the Mount Meron disaster is still fresh in our minds and must not be repeated,’ he said, referring to Israel’s biggest civilian disaster when 45 ultra-Orthodox men and boys lost their lives last April during a pilgrimage stampede.”
Some outlets also focused their reporting on the fact that a number of people passed through barricades surrounding the cemetery.
No mention was made of the massive display of kiddush Hashem at the levayah.
No mention was made of the free food and drinks made available to the hundreds of thousands at the levayah.
In addition, little was written about Maran Rav Chaim’s astounding greatness, with the secular press and international media instead writing about how Rav Chaim “made headlines in Israel at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic for defying government authorities and saying that ultra-Orthodox schools must remain open. He later relented, saying preservation of human life outweighed traditional practices.” This embarrassing form of reporting was found today across all segments of the Israeli secular media and beyond.
{Matzav.com Israel}
What is the Chidush?
What did you expect them to write?! They are scular and that is the way the secular population think and feel.
The question is why you join them in their government?
Instead of bashing them maybe try to be mekarev them
Excellent point. We must bend over backwards and twist ourselves into pretzels in order to be dan licaf zchus. We must bash Bnei Torah and be dan licaf zchus wicked sinners who hate the Torah and those that follow it.
If our community posts a 5 year record of public safety, honesty with public funds and compliance with public safety laws, the secular community will not focus on these issues when reporting on mass attendance events of ours.
“He later relented, saying preservation of human life outweighed traditional practices.”
For the secular media to say he “relented” is incorrect. Rather, when they explained to him the mechanics of the virus, how prevalent it was at the time, and how it spreads, he said that, if that’s the case, the schools should close, because human life, contrary to secular beliefs, is sacrosanct and paramount.
Ultimately, the secular media is corruptly, distortedly and deceivingly doing what it does best, that is THEIR problem.
Who cares what they write
Sick beyond words
The media is the sitra acher. The media will be completely destroyed before the coming of Moshiach and the final geulah.
To Seichel, Nobody can have complaints of someone following the minority shita that we should not join the government. The complaint I have to you is how you justify your chutzpah to most Gedolei Hador who have permitted it as a current absolute need. They prefer not to as well but consider it an absolute necessity when appropriate. They are always the ones who make that decision…
Anyone watching the event must have been apprehensive. Of course the shaygetz press had a field day
Glad you reported this.
I was there it was a tremendous Kiddush Hashem.
So sad that the secularists only want a “meron story” chalila and when they dont get it, bchasdai hashem, they find some other way to let out their poison bias.
יתמו חטאים מן הארץ
The same corrupt media that keeps reporting about the fake virus and deadly shots and all religious media follow them – DISGRACE. Here, at least, the chareidi media are reporting the truth – for a change.
The same corrupt media that keeps reporting about the fake virus and deadly shots and all religious media follow them – DISGRACE. Here, at least, the chareidi media are reporting the truth – for a change.
WILL THIS WAKE UP THE CHAREIDIM THAT THE MEDIA CANNOT BE TRUSTED IN ANYTHING??
HaRav Osher Weiss expressed relief, at the beginning of his דברי זיכרון, that the לויה of מרן הגאון זצ”ל earlier today attended by over half a million people passed without חס ושלום any major tragedy.
well, nothing new.. last week they had a report about all these little organizations and askanim that help people get appointments earlier than the rest of the tzibur. Without mentioning that chilonim get the service too and how nice and selfless it is. Instead, how an investigation needs to be made. They live off the chessed of the chareidim but unfortunately its a lost case for them to ever see the good.
1: Why is anyone surprised?
2: Does anyone expect the secular media to have an appreciation of Rav Chaim Z’l, his hasmada, his yedios hatorah, his koach hapsak, his middos tovos, anything?
3: Why is anyone bothering with the secular media ever?
Other parts of the Jewish secular and even the non-Jewish secular media though, while they did mention the valid concerns that there should not, Chas V’Shalom, be a repeat of the terrible calamity that had occurred in Meron, they did have writeups that were very respectful.
The one at the JTA’s site (an org site) titled “Mourners throng Bnei Brak for funeral of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, largest in Israel’s history,” put the estimated number of attendees even further up at one million and quoted one woman who related that, Yibodel L’Chaim Tovim V’Aruchim, Rav Gershon Edlestein, Sh’lita, had said that the residents of Bnei Brak should tear Kreea.
The one at UPI’s site (a com site) titled “Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky buried in Israel; hundreds break through cemetery borders,” put the estimated number of attendees at 750,000 and quoted the key line from the Hesped of Rav Yitzchik Zilberstein: “There is a man who weighs as much as the whole rest of the nation. Hashem almighty takes the man who weighs as much as all the people in order to atone for the people of Israel.”
The one at the New York Times (NYTimes) site (a com site) titled “Revered Jewish Sage Buried in One of the Largest Gatherings in Israel’s History” put the estimated number of attendees at between 400,000 and 750,000. It related about Rav Chaim’s family: “Rabbi Kanievsky’s illustrious family heritage also added to his prestige: His father and uncle were considered venerable religious sages, known respectively as the Steipler and the Chazon Ish, long before he rose to prominence himself.” It also related how, for well over the last 80 years — which was obviously almost his whole adult life — he was engrossed in learning Torah for 17 hours a day and thus “was revered for his encyclopedic knowledge of Jewish law and scripture.”
What do you expect from Amalek? Honesty?
You can’t sell “news” without a little schmutz. It’s what advertisers want, it’s what the readers/viewers want. Jonah Sachs covers this in his book, “Winning the Story Wars”
This is 100% FAKE NEWS
The secular covered the levaya with dignity and awe.
This article is pure hotzaas shem ra and sinas chinam SHAME ON YOU MATZAV!
I have just read the article in Jpost. I think Avraham A has a point.
There is no lashon hara for Amalek like the secular media. All the days of their lives they spew venom at EVERYTHING we do, so everything they said is falsehood just like your comment
“with the secular press and international media instead writing about how Rav Chaim “made headlines in Israel at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic for defying government authorities and saying that ultra-Orthodox schools must remain open. He later relented, saying preservation of human life outweighed traditional practices.” ”
This is a bizayon to Rav Chaim because it is kefirah, as it implies that the Torah will relent to politics, C”HV.
So, this is obviously not what happened. As someone already pointed out, the psak you get is based on the question you ask the relevant facts to that question.
So, it’s not that he CH”V relented. It’s simply that they reformulated the question and/or the details that they gave him, to which he responded differently than the prior time when that question and details were presented to him differently.