Traffic Accident Claims Life of Emissaries’ Three-Year-Old Daughter

A freak traffic accident in the Israeli capital visited tragedy upon a family of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries when it claimed the life of their three-year-old daughter.

Alta Shula Swerdlov, daughter of Rabbi Yossi and Hindel Swerdlov of Jerusalem, perished when the minibus that transported her home from school ran her over before continuing on its route through the downtown neighborhood of Rehavia. Police, who first termed the accident a hit-and-run, later caught up with the driver of the vehicle, who according to media reports, said that he was unaware of striking the child.

News of the horror that befell the Swerdlovs, most of whom had recently returned from the United States after spending the High Holidays with extended family, left emissaries throughout the world in a state of shock. Yossi Swerdlov had just last year assumed leadership of Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl – a project that since the 1980s, has airlifted thousands of radiation-exposed children from Eastern Europe to medical treatment and safety in Israel – after the sudden death of its charismatic director, Rabbi Yossi Raichik. The couple has also hosted communal Shabbat dinners at the historic Tzemach Tzedek Synagogue in Jerusalem’s Old City for several years.

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“We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss,” said Rabbi Mutty Fogelman of the Chabad Terror Victims Project, which Swerdlov assisted during Israel’s winter offensive in the Gaza Strip, leading a team of volunteers to deliver care packages to soldiers on the front lines. “The pain is deeply felt and shared by the extended family of emissaries dispersed throughout the world.”

Swerdlov, who was in the U.S. at the time, took the first flight back home. Hundreds of people attended his daughter’s burial at Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot cemetery on Tuesday. Noted Talmudic scholar Rabbi Adin Even-Yisroel Steinsaltz delivered a short eulogy.

In New York, Rabbi Mordechai Telsner, an uncle of the little girl and director of the local Children of Chernobyl office, said that he had seen his niece last week. Upon hearing of the tragedy, his wife, Shuffi Telsner, immediately joined her brother for the flight to Israel.

“The entire family had joined us over the recent holidays,” said Telsner. “Just days ago, Shula was playing with our children and the neighbors.

“We will always remember her as a sweet and friendly child,” he added. “Her parents, and all of their family members, are understandably going through a lot of pain.”

Eyewitness reports indicated that the accident happened in a split second. The girl had gotten off of the minibus with her five-year-old brother and was crossing the street to meet their eight-year-old brother when the vehicle lurched forward. When she was struck, the older brother started screaming.

“I was one of the first to arrive on the scene,” a young American yeshiva student told The Jerusalem Post. “When I got out to the street, there were just a few people trying to help the girl, but it was pretty clear that nothing could be done.”

Alta Shula was pronounced dead at Hadassah Ein-Kerem Hospital a short time later.

Further statements from police indicated that the driver of the minibus had a long record of traffic violations, and had been involved in upwards of 10 accidents.

One woman told the Post that the tragedy had little explanation.

“With these kinds of things, you really have to hold onto your faith,” she said, “because it’s so hard to understand how or why something like this could happen.”