0 commentsLast week, a 12-year-old boy died in Israel. His name was Menachem Mendel Bolton, and his death should shake us to our core.
Menachem Mendel wasn’t the victim of a random accident or an unforeseeable tragedy. He died because his classmates refused to dance with him at a bar mitzvah. This act of exclusion – let’s call it what it is, bullying – led to a chain of events ending with cardiac arrest and, days later, death in a Tel Aviv hospital bed.
Some will try to soften this ugly truth. The school’s management has already begun this process, claiming in a statement there was no bullying or violence at the event. They prefer to say someone “spoke harshly” to Menachem Mendel.
Menachem Mendel’s father described how his hurt son went outside to cry.
“He sat on a bench and cried and did not listen to anyone who tried to persuade him to come inside. He got up and walked on the grass towards the parking lot and fell,” the father wrote X. “It turned out he had a heart rhythm disorder.”
It’s easy to say “children can be cruel” and shrug our shoulders. It’s harder to look at our schools, our communities, our own homes, and ask what we’re doing to foster empathy and kindness. It’s uncomfortable to confront the fact that a culture of exclusion thrives because we adults allow it to.
Menachem Mendel Bolton’s death is not just a tragedy. It’s an indictment of our collective failure to protect the vulnerable among us. Every time we as Jews dismiss bullying as harmless, every time we fail to intervene when we see a child excluded or taunted, we contribute to a culture that killed a 12-year-old boy.
We need a fundamental shift in how we view and respond to cruelty among children. Because the next time, and there will be a next time if we don’t act, it could be your child sitting alone on that bench, crying, with a heart about to give out.
Menachem Mendel Bolton deserved better. All our children deserve better.
Exactly!!!!!
Heartbreaking. I hope tgat this school is scrutinised and a full report issued. Bullying must abd shoukd be stamped out in all it’s forms.
And here’s Mr thinking tgat Jewush Schools were a beacon of light to other establishments.
Having this occur at a Bar Mitzvah event clearly shows that the most important Mitzvah of Veahavta is not being addressed. We all need to highlight the importance of compassion and Derech Eretz before any extravagant event. Efforts to make this particular important Jewish event meaningful and beautiful should contain the Jewish neshama and be inclusive to everyone. 💕
The ostracism is terrible and should be addressed at home and in the classroom. But I don’t believe it caused a heart arrhythmia.
I would rather like to know if he was vaccinated instead of blaming the Yeshiva and it’s students.
@TN
Would you be shocked to discover that he was NOT vaccinated? However, most of his classmates WERE vaccinated, which proves that vaccines cause bullying!
Who gives a damn if he was vaccinated or not. Who cares that this inappropriate action by his classmates caused the heart arrhythmia. His classmates excluded him to the point that he was inconsolable. THAT IS THE DISEASE THAT KILLED THIS YOUNG CHILD. Everything else are just side effects of exclusion.
Dsru Bin, your statement is cruel and ignorant and promotes bullying. Shame on you. Who the F…. Cares about vaccines now, he was bullied and died of a heart attack brought on by bullying.
Boruch Dayan Emes! How horribly tragic!
It just so happens that more people have died from heart complications from Covid vaccinations including children then probably bullying has had an effect on them. This Israeli government vaccinated the heck out of most citizens and it’s been well documented the fallout Was far worse than the protection provided by the vaccine.. I also agree 100% that bullying has no place in civil society. Bless his soul!
I do believe that the heart break of what the
bully or bullies did to him created the earlier
death which he would have died from at some
point . This is a tragedy for such a young soul
to leave this world in the state he must have
felt . Sick and devastating news.
Parents need to teach their kids by example.
Kids learn what they see . Be an example to
our youth . No one wants this to happen to
One let alone an innocent child.
Baruch Dayan Emes
Can you imagine all the children will have died when they were regected to dance at a bar mitvah.
I regectet a lots of boys at mar mitsvah and they didn’t dye.
The boy had to have a big with his hart,that was really kill him
The father put out a statement, stating clearly that
1) He wasnt bullied by the classmates
2) It definitely wasnt caused by them
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1092055322290129&id=100044570133583
Lubavitchers think the societal problems don’t affect them. They’re above it all. How sad and tragic that this took place in the shadow of the 770 mockup. The Rebbe must be turning over in his grave.
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