About 100,000 hasidim (ultra-Orthodox followers) congregated on the night of April 2 near the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva (rabbinical college) in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak. They assembled there to attend the funeral of Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner — one of the most influential Jewish legal authorities of his generation among various streams in the ultra-Orthodox sector, who died at the age of 102.
At the moment the stretcher carrying the body of the rabbi was brought out of the yeshiva, a multitude of people started to surge toward it in a big crowd that accompanied the stretcher as it exited the yeshiva. As a result, one of the hasidim was trampled to death; another yeshiva student, who was only 18, was also trampled and died of the injuries a few days later. Two other youngsters were badly hurt, and in all about a hundred attendees required medical attention. Police are investigating whether oversights in organization of the funeral caused the terrible tragedy.
