Itamar Glazer lives in the heart of Tel Aviv and fits the profile of the typical resident of his bohemian neighborhood but that didn’t stop him from visiting Bnei Brak last week to comfort the families of Meron victims, Ynet reported.

He took a bus from Tel Aviv to Bnei Brak, and in 15 minutes he arrived at the home of the family of Menachem Zakbach, z’l, after stopping on the way to buy two cakes with a Badatz hechsher. “At first I felt a little uncomfortable,” Itamar told Ynet. “I was a stranger and they were strangers to me. I didn’t even put on a kippah because I didn’t have one. But when Menachem’s father saw me, he immediately spoke to me and said that of all the visitors, he’s most moved to see me.”

“At a certain point, we simply hugged and cried together and I remember that I told myself that what a shame that I missed out on these people my entire life. It wasn’t like going to eat cholent in Mea Shearim and returning home. This was sitting opposite a bereaved father and speaking about life, without anyone trying to change anyone. We saw that ultimately we’re not so different.”

Further down the street lives the Levy family, who lost their son in the disaster, Moshe, z’l, only 14. As soon as Itamar entered, the bereaved father asked him to sit next to him. “He told me: ‘You already accomplished what you wanted.'”

“‘What did I want?’ I asked, and he responded: ‘You came to unite.’ I told him that I came to identify with his pain. He answered: ‘Thousands of visitors from the Chareidi community came here but davka you, who wasn’t obligated to come, shows how much we’re on the same side.’ I’ll never forget the things he told me,” Itamar said.

Until now, Itamar knew Chareidim mainly from his service in the army during Operation Protective Edge. “The ones that came in a van to give out candies, cigarettes, and little Sifrei Tehillim,” he said.

“They say that Tel Avivians live in a bubble, that they’re cut off and light-years away from the Chareidim. It’s true that I’ve lived in Tel Aviv for the past two years but I’m originally from Maalot. There, when someone is sitting shiva, the entire city comes. It’s a place of togetherness. That’s how I grew up.”

Following Itamar’s visit to Bnei Brak, he posted about it on Facebook, encouraging others to visit as well. “The number of messages I got from people telling me they went to visit the bereaved families and comfort them warms my heart,” Itamar said. “They came from the north and the south to Bnei Brak and Jerusalem just to show their support.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)