The ultra-Orthodox boy Moishe Kleinerman has been absent from his home for 83 days. Traveling to the graves of the righteous in Meron has become every parent’s great nightmare. On Friday, March 25, 16-year-old Moishe left the yeshiva where he was studying in Jerusalem for Meron; His peers who were in Meron said they saw him at a third meal held there, and he was even recorded on security cameras during the Sabbath. But since then his traces have disappeared.
“We are in a huge question mark, uncertainty is eating us up from piece to piece,” his mother, Giti Kleinerman, tells me at the family home in Modi’in-Illit. “What needs to happen to shock the country? It’s just a scandal, a default.”
That Friday, she says, in her last conversation with Moishe, he told her she did not have to worry about him. “I’m a mature guy. Enough to call once a week,” she quotes his words. “I waited for his phone, but in my heart I said okay, give it to him. Then a few days passed and he did not call. I felt something had happened to him. My husband went to the meeting and told him he was not there. We tried to look in other places and then we turned to the police. To him? Is he alive? Does anyone care for him?
“Moishe is a good boy who loves the house. People who do not know him think: maybe he ran away. But that’s not the style, it’s not the profile. He did not even take the tefillin with him, left them on Friday at the yeshiva. He liked to be with friends, go to the grave “He is a very spiritual child, a child who melts hearts.”
A year and a half ago, Moishe was wounded in the head at the tomb of Joshua Ben-Nun, north of Ariel in Samaria; From there also the scar on his forehead. “A rock was thrown at him, and his condition was difficult,” says the mother. “Thank God he came out of it. He is a special child, can not stand controversy. He did not agree that we should be in any party. He hung on the wall the picture of the late Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, only to say that there should be unity among all.”
The Kleinerman family home looks like a typical ultra-Orthodox home. At noon, every few minutes there is a knock on the door: another girl returns from kindergarten, from school. Mother Getty is sitting at the table. With every knock or phone ring she is alerted. “Do you know how many videos and photos were sent to us? Every moment someone else thinks he found him. We hope and look forward, then discouraged. Even someone from Eilat called. She thought she saw him, said he asked her for money for food. “.
Haim Hanfling, Giti’s brother and the boy’s uncle, says he contacted the authorities in Eilat to locate more cameras in the area, and even talked to the mayor. In the end, it turned out that this was not Moishe.
The family points to steps that could have been taken by the police and security forces, and they say they were not carried out or were done too late. At the beginning of the journey, the family asked for a telephone call from those who were in Meron at the time. With the help of the mapping of those present, it might have been possible to find who else was there and get information, but they claim that this was not done. In April, a few weeks after Moishe was last seen, the family received news that he had been observed in Tiberias. Police sent detectives to the scene, who said there were no security cameras. Hanfling drove there himself and saw that there were actually cameras.
“Then they had to issue a court order, and this process also took seven precious days,” the uncle continues. “After that, there was no manpower to watch the videos. The police did not approve of the materials being released for viewing by volunteers because they are investigative materials.” He and Getty sat at the police station for fifty or sixty hours watching the documentation. “We sat and watched until the eyes saw nothing. We were completely exhausted. We went home to sleep and rest, and the next day we went back to the station. At the station I was already told that I needed a police card. It’s inconceivable.” Getty: “I sat for eight hours watching only one security camera.”
DNA samples were taken just a month ago. “That too following our request,” Hanfling says. “I talked to a missing family member, and they asked me if they had taken the child’s DNA samples. That the police officers initiate and act as professionals. “
At one point they decided to look for security cameras themselves whenever relatively reliable information was received. “We set foot, turned to businesses, to homes, reached dozens of cameras. We knew that if we waited until the police received resources it would not happen. The Modi’in-Illit police station does a lot for us. Good people. But the station is too small. It does not have enough tools, resources, manpower. , “Hanfling claims. “Also on the intelligence level: Why has the GSS not entered the picture until this moment? Why did it not move initially to the national level? We told them that Moishe travels a lot to the tombs of the righteous, even those within Arab localities. Maybe there’s something security here? How come the country is not on its feet on this story? How can it not rise to the highest ranks? “
The family home also houses Yekutiel (Mike) Ben-Yaakov, commander of the Israel Kennel Unit (YKL). The responsibility for the missing is on the Israel Police alone. Police are busy with serious crime cases – violence, rape. At the local station level, there is a limit to the resources that can be allocated. “
Ben-Yaakov reviews the options currently on the table. “One, maybe he’s still in the Meron area. He went out alone or on his way to another destination, and something happened to him in the field. A second possibility is that for whatever reason he is on the run, does not want to get home, lives and exists and walks In connection with the family. And another possibility is hostile elements, terrorists or criminals, who have harmed him. He used to roam free in the tombs of the righteous in all the villages. Even the Arabs. It is a pattern of behavior that justifies an examination of the matter. “
Getty tells of sleepless days and nights. “Think your child is gone for an hour or two, what a tremendous pressure that is,” she says. “83 days is almost 2,000 hours. All this while having a home to manage, and I have a six-month-old baby and another three-and-a-half-year-old – in total there are seven more children here. We are just collapsing, both mentally and physically.”
Two social activists, Ariel Elharar and Yael Tzin, took it upon themselves to repeatedly flood Moishe’s absence. Al-Harrar has been posting on his Twitter page for two months the number of days that have passed since the boy’s disappearance; His activities led to a quick discussion on the subject in the Internal Security Committee in the Knesset. Five MKs signed the petition, and although it was initially rejected by the Knesset presidency, the debate is finally scheduled for next week. “Why was it not scheduled for tomorrow? “Because they have no answers,” says El-Harrar. They have nothing to give. It is simply a disgrace, because this is an ultra-Orthodox boy who underestimated this issue. “
Getty did not initially want to stand at the forefront of the struggle, for reasons of modesty; When the importance of the subject was explained to her and she received the approval of a rabbi, she even came to the TV studios. Yael Tzin accompanies her in an effort to stir up the media regarding Moishe’s absence; The Kleinerman family lived next door to Zinn’s family members, thus establishing a connection between them. “I felt that the mother needed female support and sensitive understanding. We asked for special permission from the mayor so we could shoot a video of her crying for help with the people of Israel, the police and the government. I left their house dismantled, promised to do everything for Moishe. “And we brought in an advertising budget of over half a million shekels from dear people who preferred to stay behind the scenes.”
The Am Yisrael Chai Foundation, managed by Shmuel Sket, has announced that it will provide NIS 50,000 to anyone who brings real information that will lead to the finding of the missing and healthy boy. “I hope the allocation of the amount will encourage more people to join the efforts,” says Skett at the family home. “We must not lose hope even for a moment.” The fund has opened telephone lines to provide information about Moishe Kleinerman 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and all week: 053-2845507, or 050-6571577.
This week, after an extensive media awakening and the publication of the family’s criticism, the commissioner spoke with the head of the Investigations and Intelligence Division (PLO) of the police, who appointed a special investigation team into the crime investigation unit (Samaritan) to track down Moishe. The family says, by the way, that two months ago they asked for a special team to be set up.
The police responded: “During every report or complaint about a missing person, the police carry out a wide range of actions, using many means to locate him, and this is done in this case as well. The investigation efforts continue all the time, On the establishment of a special investigation team at BilP Shomron, along with investigation teams of the PLO, in order to track down the missing person and locate him. We will continue to use all the means at our disposal to locate him and return him to his family. “
“I try to stay strong because I have more kids here who need me,” Getty says. “The community supports and the people of Israel are mobilized and it is exciting. But where is the state? Where is the commissioner? Where are the forces? “GSS, Mossad, intelligence, skimmers, cavalry and helicopters and all the special units. We saw it in the story of Sapir Nahum, or when there were terrorists who roamed free. When they want, they find, so why do they not want here?”