Last night, in an emotional funeral attended by 800,000 people, Israel parted with Rav Haim Ovadia Yosef. He was 93 years old at the time of his death. I won’t write of his accomplishments, of what he had built, who he led, what he did. I won’t write of the controversial statements we all know he made; and I won’t begin to explain the feelings throughout Israel as so many attended.
Eight hundred thousand people…that is 10% of the entire population of the State of Israel. Without question, it is the largest funeral in Israel’s history. It might be the largest gathering of Israelis ever. And, for all that there were so many hundreds of thousands, not a single shot was fired (as compared to Arab funerals of their heroes, terrorists and murderers). One hundred people were injured – almost all the result of either emotion, fainting, the crush of the crowd, or falling from a building/balcony/light post while trying to get a better view.
Eight hundred thousand people…and how did our dear friends of CNN report this incredible evening…look for yourself. I would guess if you looked at the pictures they provide, you could count more than the mere “hundreds” they reference.
Congratulations to CNN for the understatement and failed reporting of the century…
Hundreds of Israelis? Amazing…
The Meran was a great scholar – probably the last of the great Jewish scholars since the time of the Mishnah – that is his great accomplishment.
I think his other great accomplishment was to legitimate Zionism among haredi Jewry. A few years ago, Shas joined the Zionist movement as the first ever haredi Zionist party. Rav Yosef always spoke of the Jewish people has having come home.
And in the funeral we saw how much the Jewish nation revered and loved him! The Meran’s loss is Israel’s loss but somehow his legacy in Israel will carry on!
No matter how much the world fails to understand the Jewish people.
Paula, unless CNN calls 850,000 Israelis a few hundred people….I think they should print a correction.
No funeral in America for any leader, ever saw such numbers accompanying the body to the grave.
Sloppy reporting
Miriam
Did you expect any less from CNN? It is on a par with the Guardian and the BBC.
Yeah. A few years ago, CNN said that the 9/12 tea party march in 2009 only had 20,000 people, while any idiot who looked at the video tapes on youtube could see that it was easily hundreds of thousands, if not a million or more.
That says much about the Israelis themselves when so many attend the funeral of this man who called the NonJews names I don’t want to repeat here who gloated over the hurrican Katherina tragedy.
Sorry that they showed their disrespect like that. Its CNN’s way of trying to down-play some thing, or a group they don’t like.
Keep in mind, this is the same network that employs Christiane Amanpour. A woman who openly hates Israel and Jews with a passion.
Being from the states, I would like to say sorry for this.
On the bright side, their ratings here is tanking. They use to be called “America’s Trusted Sources For News” because when a major breaking story happened, they turned on CNN.
That has now long passed to Fox.