Popular Orthodox Teen Orphaned by Yom Kippur Crash
By Anne Cohen September 30, 2013
Orly Ohayon is a “popular” observant Jewish teenager who grew up in Jacksonville, Fla., where her Israeli immigrant parents settled decades ago.
The 16-year-old girl is now an orphan after the tragic Yom Kippur accident that killed her mother and left her with serious physical injuries. She was released last week from the University of Florida Health Hospital and transferred to a rehabilitation facility in Jacksonville, Fla.
Esther Benzohar Ohayon was born in Casablanca, Morocco and immigrated to Israel in 1969. In 1975, she and her husband moved to Jacksonville to be closer to his sister and brother, both Florida residents. Yehuda Ohayon passed away in 1999.
Esther Ohayon remained an active member of the community after her husband’s death, teaching pre-school at the Jacksonville Jewish Center for 8 years.
Orly Ohayon is an active member of the National Coalition Synagogue Youth, the international youth program run by the Orthodox Union, on both the regional and national level.
“She’s very popular,” said Rabbi Yaakov Fisch of Etz Chaim synagogue, the Orthodox congregation attended by Orly Ohayon and her mother.
Esther Ohayon was buried last week in Israel, where her three older children live. She was a grandmother of four.
After the deadly crash, Orly Ohayon’s friends built a sukkah outside the hospital in hopes of raising her spirits.
The teen will continue her recovery at the Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital in Jacksonville. According to Fisch, her siblings have flown in from Israel to be with her.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
