Argentina mourns 21-year-old son of Buenos Aires rabbi who died in Meron disaster
(JTA) — A 21-year-old yeshiva student from Argentina was among the 45 people to die in the Lag b’Omer disaster in Israel last week.
Abraham Daniel Embon attended Yeshiva Heichal Yitzchak in Jerusalem. His father, Daniel, is a rabbi at Sucath David Community Center, an Orthodox institution in Buenos Aires.
Many of Argentina’s leading Jewish organizations — including the political umbrella DAIA, the Buenos Aires JCC AMIA and the Argentine Zionist Organization OSA — offered condolences. Along with its condolences, the country’s Foreign Ministry offered its support for Israel.
“The Argentine Republic expresses its condolences to the government and people of the State of Israel for the tragedy that occurred on Mount Meron and wishes a speedy recovery for the injured,” the ministry tweeted Friday after Embon’s death was announced. “Likewise, it regrets the death of the young Argentine Daniel Embon and expresses its solidarity with his loved ones.”
Embon’s parents left Buenos Aires late Saturday for Miami and then to Israel to bury their son. Some of the Mount Meron victims were buried on Friday in accordance with Jewish rituals that prioritize swift burials, but many of the foreign citizens — including six Americans — were interred Sunday so that family members could travel to Israel after Shabbat for their funerals.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
