OP-ED: Bein Hazmanim Tragedies Highlight Need For Safety Awareness, Sleepaway Camps

JERUSALEM(VINnews) — Every time that Bein Hazmanim approaches in Israel, I brace for another litany of unfortunate accidents and tragedies. As tens of thousands of people generally cooped up in their homes and yeshivas prepare to expend excess energies in pools, lakes and oceans as well as on off the beaten track hikes, it is almost inevitable that some will be woefully unprepared for what awaits them.

If even the prime minister of Israel can be caught unawares by the intense heat at the Kinneret lake during July, suffering a heart incident as a result, those who have less outdoor experience and life preservation skills are more than likely to suffer from heatstroke, dehydration, exposure or even simply drowning.

Watching large charedi families negotiate the railroad system can already be hair-raising. The children maneuver between the milling crowds, trying vainly to stay as close together as possible, with the adults trying to keep their eyes on everyone at once. In the end, the children somehow manage both to stay on the platform and reach their train compartment, but sometimes they don’t – as occurred when a 3-year-old child was recently left in a carriage in the Tel Aviv station. Mercifully she wasn’t near the tracks, but the incident emphasized how much care must be taken to ensure that every child is supervised and safe.

When the trip involves a water source or a long hike, it is critically imperative to be aware of possible pitfalls and dangers. The first danger is the sun itself, which may seem innocuous to a city dweller but can be lethal in open areas. When a few years ago I wished to climb the path to Masada (a 45-min grueling hike up to the summit), I was told that the path was closed in the summer, evidently due to the desert heat. However there was no such warning sign when a chareidi family entered a Jordan Valley stream on one of the hottest days of this year. The temperature was 42°C (108ºF), a scorching heat which requires 7.5 liters of water per person simply to rehydrate. Any exposure without proper rehydration and especially including the exertions of a hike can be fatal. Rabbi Binyamin Praga (44) of Kiryat Sefer paid the ultimate price and died on the trail.

A few days later, another Kiryat Sefer resident, 10-year-old Baruch Abadi, drowned in a pool nearby. While this was clearly the lifeguard’s fault (It was the lifeguard who found and tried to resuscitate him), if the child had been accompanied by a responsible, sharp adult, things might have turned out differently.

In yet another tragic incident, 79-year-old R’ Yitzchak Ben-Shimol of Jerusalem drowned in the Kinneret. Once again, when people bathe at non-authorized beaches, such accidents are all too common. The Kinneret may seem calm, but it has strong undercurrents which can even challenge seasoned swimmers, especially in afternoon hours. The only solution is to join the crowds at the separate beach when a lifeguard is present.

This Tuesday, 18-year-old Yishai Keinan, a budding Torah scholar, joined friends in a lagoon near Maale Gamla. The lagoon has unseen rocks underwater and is very deep even from the shores- reaching a depth of 5 meters (16 feet). It is unclear what happened to Yishai- maybe he hit an underwater rock, maybe he couldn’t swim as well as he thought, but critically he got separated from his friends and went underwater, never to surface.

This was a terrible loss, but one which could have been prevented if the yeshiva itself were to organize the Bein Hazmanim extracurricular activities. Making a sleepaway camp and going as a group would enable proper supervision, responsible hikes and the taste of yeshiva life even during the vacation period. In hindsight it seems that the yeshivos must take the initiative and provide the recreation which will secure the physical safety of the students and maintain their spiritual stature. If they can’t do that, the least that must be done is to inculcate the laws of V’Nishmartem, the basic safety rules which can be the difference between joy and everlasting sorrow.