Students at the Bnei Zion pre-military preparatory program in Tel Aviv mourned 10 of their friends over the weekend after a flash flood killed them last Thursday during a field trip in the south.
The program decided to adopt a recommendation, made by a team of psychologists assigned to help the students cope with the tragedy, for the students to spend the weekend together.
The students gathered at the program's Tel Aviv headquarters, including the 15 high school seniors who survived the flash flood, together with dozens of alumni who came to support, embrace and provide solace.
One of the students who participated in Friday night Shabbat dinner with the mourners noted that "people cried and were flustered, it was very difficult" when the prayer reached the verse "from the sounds of the mighty waters" (Psalms 93:4).
"There are 40 students enrolled in the preparatory program," said an academy employee. "About 70 people arrived for Shabbat, including parents of students who survived the tragedy, but mostly alumni who came to offer strength."
"The fact that the alumni came was very impressive. There are police officers, senior officials, elite soldiers, they all took time off and came to offer strength," he said. "During Seudah Shlishit [the third Shabbat meal, late Saturday afternoon], everyone sat together and it was very enveloping. People felt a need to be together."
Ben Schafer, a graduate of the program who came to show solidarity over the weekend, told Israel Hayom that "it was a powerful Shabbat, the force of the alumni was palpable. Without coordinating ahead of time, alumni from the past ten years came simply because they felt that it was right to be here, to support one another."
"There was a sense of immense love alongside efforts to wrap our heads around this crisis that befell us. Suddenly you see faces that you haven't seen in eight years and each person takes responsibility for something. The alumni embraced the students, they talked about the immense pain, about people who lost their friends and there was a sense of great responsibility," he recalled.
Suzy Kelman, a local Tel Aviv resident who visited the vigil, admitted, "I don't personally know any one of the students, but I saw their pictures and I read that they were the salt of the earth. I was sad for them, so I came to light a candle in their memory. It's sad, heartbreaking."
In the wake of the tragedy, the Education Ministry announced it will establish a committee, headed by ministry director Shmuel Abuav, to regulate the activities of pre-military academies in Israel. The committee will include representatives from the Defense Ministry and the Joint Council of Pre-Military Academies.
The committee will investigate procedures and supervisory mechanisms, particularly on the matter of these programs' field trips and hikes throughout the country.
The committee's goal is to ensure that these hikes are supervised and conducted in an organized and safe manner.
The pre-military preparatory programs are funded by the education and defense ministries, with each providing 50% of the budget. However, the issue of oversight on outdoor activities is not detailed in a 2008 law regulating pre-military preparatory academies.
Two Bnei Zion counselors as well as its founder, Yuval Kahan, were arrested on Thursday, hours after the body of the last of the ten victims was recovered. The three were questioned by police and one suspect was released under house arrest.
The counselor under house arrest told police investigators that she had warned the program administrators several times about the expected floods in the south. She told police she tried to convince them to cancel the ultimately fatal hike.
The counselor lives in one of the southern Arava communities, close to where the flash flood occurred, and is the daughter of a deputy commander of a military search and rescue unit.
"She even consulted with her father, but at the end of the day it wasn't her decision whether or not to go ahead with the hike," said attorney Shachar Mendelson.
Nati Simchony, Kahan's defense attorney, said Friday, "Keep in mind that this is the life's work of 50 pre-military programs that are of extreme importance to the State of Israel. This is a tragic event and it is the police's duty to get to the truth. But still, we are just at the beginning of a process and it is unseemly to pass judgment over the suspects here and now."
Zion Amir, the attorney representing academy counselor Aviv Berdichev, said his client was fully cooperating with investigators.
"Everything he can do in the framework of the investigation, he will do – whatever act or information they ask for. He isn't hiding anything and isn't reserving the right to remain silent. He has no secrets, therefore I have believed from the beginning that the remand is unnecessary."
"This is a difficult tragedy on a national level," Amir said.
