Ramot Minhelet local authority official Asher Kuperstock spoke with Kol Chai Radio on Sunday morning, 11 Tammuz, hours after the 11-year-old neighborhood resident was laid to rest. The child fell to his death from the rooftop of a community talmid torah building.
Kuperstock points out for one thing, the community, numbering over 40,000 residents, does not have a local security officer as it should. When asked if this is because City Hall is not as concerned with chareidim, he responded “I do not know. This question has to be directed to City Hall”.
Kuperstock tells he was informed of the disaster on motzei Shabbos and immediately went to the area to see what occurred. He explained the school yard was left open for children to play in accordance to law. He added that upon inspection on motzei Shabbos, the access to the shaft where the child fell was closed as required.
Also speaking to Kol Chai was Ichud Hatzalah EMT Yitzchak Katz, one of the first on the scene. He explains that when he arrived children told him they were playing on the roof and he fell. “From what I saw it was closed as locked as it should have been. It was closed in such a way a regular person could not get in but the children got onto the roof and somehow managed to get into the opening to the shaft”.
Kuperstock added they do their best to keep the children busy with activities that do not endanger them. “We are pained over the loss. We called our volunteer who tries to oversee security and asked him what must be done to avoid the next tragedy. We called local community officials too”.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
A kollel I know was once doing some construction and had an exposed area, including ledges on which the children played and from which they could have fallen to serious injury. I asked the rosh kollel about the mitzvah of placing a ma’akeh, and he responded that the issur of lo sasim damim bveisecha only applies to a personal home (veisecha), but not to a community building like a kollel. Perhaps someone here also felt that way about building a ma’akeh near a talmud torah.
You wrote: It was closed in such a way a regular person could not get in but the children got onto the roof and somehow managed . . .
Tell me, aren’t children “regular people”?
with “officials” like these blaming everyone other than themselves, I don’t expect anything to change.
M, I wonder if the rosh kollel would be so blase about a question of chametz on pesach. First, there is a clear issur of having anything dangerous exposed even in a study hall (Chazon Ish to Rambam, Hilchot Rotzei’ach 11:2). Second, the particular rule exempting a maakeh is not for an ordinary community center. There are two reasons given: It is for a center that is, (1) national, or (2) a place that is not a living area. So fo rreason (1), that means if any stranger came you could not turn him away. You think that really applies?