Yitzchok Singer

These words are being written amidst sadness and tears, as Klal Yisroel grieves following the tragic passing of Hindy Spira a”h, 26, and Raizel Morgenstern a”h, 24, in a horrific accident on Monday. Hindy and Raizel were driving with two friends, Suri Mayerowitz and Miriam Meyer, in Holbrook, Arizona, when the accident occured at the intersection of Routes 77 and 377, as the girls’ rental vehicle was hit by an empty tractor trailer.

Rebbetzin Faiga Esther Finkel a”h passed away on Shabbos in Yerushalayim at the age of 76. Rebbetzin Finkel, who was visiting family in Yerushalayim, entered her building after attending a shiur Shabbos afternoon. As she proceeded to the stairs, an air raid siren sounded due to an impending rocket attack. She went to the home of a neighbor, where she collapsed. Magein Dovid Adom paramedics arrived and attempted to resuscitate her. She passed away shortly thereafter.

Yosef Bondo, Yosef ben Ita Rivka, the youngest of the three bochurim arrested in Japan back in 2008 who was transferred last March to Eretz Yisroel, had his sentenced commuted by Israel on December 30 and was released on Sunday. Sunday night, shortly after he was back inhis hometown, Yosef davened Maariv at the Itzkowitz Bais Medrash in Bnei Brak. Yosef, the only juvenile (under 18 years of age) of the three bochurim, was sentenced on April 30, 2009, to five years in jail in Japan, this being the maximum sentence that could be a meted to a minor. His lawyers’ request for him to serve the remainder of his sentence in his home country was subsequently granted. He was placed in the Rimonim prison and had been allowed to visit his family several times over the last year.

This past week, the achdus of Klal Yisroel was on clear display as numerous gatherings were held at various locations across the United States, with Yidden joining together to say Tehillim and hear divrei hisorerus as zechuyos for Reb Sholom Mordechai ben Rivkah Rubashkin, whose sentencing hearings were held at the end of last week in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Jews of all stripes and affiliations - most who do not know Reb Sholom Mordechai at all - gathered for the sole purpose of beseeching Hakadosh Boruch Hu to grant this tremendous baal chessed and yirei Shomayim a personal geulah v’yeshuah following a travesty of justice and the most trying period of his life, during which he has been incarcerated and forced to spend his days behind bars unjustly.