Leah’s in New York with her family.
She replies to my email:
Im tryin to hang in there.
Its tough. sitting shiva sux.
I think its just starting to hit me now though.
My anger is coming out pretty bad.
I want to post pix of my sis in the morgue but my bro
dosent want me to. I think it would be an in your
face gruesom wake up call that might cause a chane in the
attitude of this fucked up community.
I ask Leah who she’s mad at. She responds: "G-d, the world, the school that threw her out, my parents, myself
the whle fucking world. no one should have to bury a daughter. My mother buried two. My sister died when she was 10 months old in 1989."
Within the last few weeks, there have been three unfortunate incidents. Two had fatal outcomes. One, miraculously, did not. These episodes, their causes, and the ensuing response (or lack thereof), have prompted me to write this.
On Thursday, the 6th of Av, a daughter of a Crown Heights family died in her sleep. She overdosed on heroin. On Friday, the 7th of Av, a young man from a frum family in Baltimore was killed in a car accident. Both he and the driver were drunk. On Shabbos, the 23rd of Tammuz, a young man crashed into a bungalow colony and, thank G-d, escaped with minor injuries. He was drunk. The two boys were 16; the girl in her 20s.
Each of these incidents could have, and should have, been avoided. But they weren’t. Sadly, incidents like these will happen again, and again, and again. Unless we do something about it.
Over the last couple of years, the frum community has started to realize that they are not immune to the sicknesses which had previously only plagued the secular world. Diseases such as alcohol abuse, drug addiction, and depression, amongst others, are rearing their ugly heads among our own. The reaction from the majority of our community was (and is) to turn the other cheek, to chalk it up as a random occurrence, to believe that these issues will never affect them, their families, or their loved ones. There are those who are vocal, but unfortunately, they are far and few between.
