WORDS fail me. It seems Tisha bAv has come early this year. Last Monday afternoon, when we heard that a Jewish nine-year-old boy from Brooklyn was missing, we all prayed. Yehuda ben Itta. We all held out in the hope that he would be found. The community joined in the search for Leiby Kletzky, as he was known. The rest of us just prayed.
Little Leibys sweet, innocent and pious countenance was plastered all over.
To all those who were searching, the identifying photograph of Leiby was of him bent over a sefer, a holy book, studying Torah.
Today, the community is joined together again, no longer in the search, but this time in mourning. I can never erase that poignant picture of Leiby learning Torah from my heart.
Leibys body was found, morning, piecemeal. His feet, in a bloodied freezer in Flatbush, the rest of his body in a dumpster in Greenwood Heights. Little Leibys body was gruesomely dismembered by his obviously sociopathic killer, a fellow Jew.
Everyone in Brooklyn is devastated. In shock. Everyone is asking . . . How? How could this have happened?
It breaks my heart to say it: It can happen. And, of course, it did happen.
My heart is hurting. So is everyones.
Just like all communities of human beings, many problems plague the Orthodox Jewish communities. Unfortunately, too often the rabbinic leaderships response is dangerous denial that sees the Orthodox as above it. When will people wake up and begin facing the music? Tragically, it is too late for Leiby Kletzky. But what about the next child?
The rest of this article is available in the IJN’s print edition only. Contact Carol to order your copy at (303) 861-2234 or email [email protected].
