The "Vaadat Chachamisha", the Committee of Five, that runs the complex of Kever Rashbi in Meron recently announced that as of this Thursday the complex will be shut down. They are having a problem finding insurance to cover the site, ever since the tragedy this past lag B'Omer in which 45 pilgrims died. Without insurance on the site, they are not willing to keep it open to visitors with the risk falling all on them. If, God forbid, something should happen and some would get hurt there, they could be sued without insurance.
I dont know why this Thursday and not until now, but I would guess that this Thursday the current policy expires and no insurance company will renew or take it on.
We recently went up to visit the site in Meron, so if it shuts down, at least I know we got in before the bell.
Since they made the announcement, Hamechadesh is reporting that a group of "gvirim" from Satmar have met to discuss this situation and have decided to approach American based insurance companies to look for coverage. They are offering insurance companies to be guarantors on the coverage should anything happen. The Vaadat Hachamisha is open to considering this, should a formal offer of a policy be made. Additionally, this gives them, somehow, a point of pressure to hold on the government and on local insurance companies to maybe get a local offer.
I am not sure why this adds pressure. If I were a local insurance company refusing to give a policy I would be happy that someone else took responsibility for it. Additionally, in today's day and age I dont see why it should matter where the insurance company is based. Anyways the Israeli companies are probably really just agents of sorts for global insurance companies providing the actual coverage. Either way, it is good they might be able to find a policy.
That being said, this type of arrangement sounds like a scam. I wonder if any real insurance company will fall for it, or if they will at least get maximum legal protection. Anyone who slips down the stairs or trips and hurts himself and decides to sue will get paid by these Satmar chassidim? I cannot believe any real insurance company would work on such an arrangement with coverage being guaranteed privately. Perhaps this would work better if these gvirim would set up their own insurance company and provide the coverage directly.
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