Charedi “News” Source Covers Up Suicide Story

Yeshiva World News is one of the main places where the right-wing Orthodox community gets their news. It’s an unfortunate site replete with hateful comments and downright racist remarks, especially when anything related to Barack Obama is reported. There was even a forum on the site asking readers whether or not they felt that non-observant readers should be allowed to comment on the forums. [Editor’s note: I would love to know how they intended to prove the strength of commenters’ observance. I can’t even figure out our commenters’ real names.]

It was reported earlier this week that a man from Yeshiva Ner Israel in Baltimore was killed in a car accident while traveling between Baltimore and Passaic, NJ. Yeshiva World News’ main competition Vos Iz Neias (Yiddish for "What Is News"), reported the same exact story. 

The next day it was revealed in the Baltimore Jewish Times that the car-accident story was false. According to the Maryland State Police, the man had in fact committed suicide by jumping off the bridge, where the car accident supposedly took place. Vos Iz Neias immediately rescinded their original story and posted the real story with an apology. Yeshiva World News did no such thing, in fact, rather then removing the false story from their website, as of midnight this evening the news story claiming that this man had died in an automotive accident was still on the Yeshiva World News website.

This is not the first time Yeshiva World News has covered up, or failed to report on, a story affecting the frum community. When news broke that Rabbi Dr. Benzion Twersky was threatened for being the head of a task force to deal with growing problems of child molestation in the Orthodox community, Yeshiva World News failed to mention anything, while Vos Iz Neias had complete coverage of the story. 

Unfortunately, the frum community would rather turn a blind eye to issues that affect them just like everyone else, rather than face the cold hard fact that every community – no matter how pious or insular – has issues.