The early days of summer herald a time of lazy, sun-filled activities. Families take vacations together, barbecues are dusted off, kids head off to camp.
But this year, a series of horrific tragedies struck within the same week, jarring our community and breaking our collective hearts.
First, on the night of June 30, 19 members of an elite firefighting unit died battling a blaze near Prescott, Ariz., burned to death as they took desperate shelter under heat-resistant tarps that could not save them.
On July 6, Asiana Flight 214 crashed while attempting to land at San Francisco International Airport. Some 180 people were hurt, and two teenage girls from China, on their way to a Christian summer camp near Fresno, were killed. They were childhood friends and were seated together near the rear of the plane, looking forward to an exciting foreign adventure.
And coming between those two tragedies was the July 3 disaster at Camp Tawonga, where part of a 70-foot oak tree fell on a group of staff members, injuring four and killing 21-year-old Annaïs Rittenberg, a student at U.C. Santa Cruz.
The Tawonga tragedy shook the entire Bay Area Jewish community. These were our children, all of them — campers and counselors. A parent could have no worse nightmare.
When tragedy strikes, the immediate reaction is shock, which gives way quickly to grief and then, often, anger. Why did this happen to me? To my loved ones? We want to make someone, something, responsible for our loss, a way to focus — or perhaps displace — our unbearable pain.
There has been no lack of criticism surrounding the Tawonga tragedy, as our cover story on page 2 describes. Should the campers have been told of Rittenberg’s death? Why was false information allowed to stand for so long on social media before being corrected? Why did the PG&E inspection say the tree was safe?
None of that eases the pain. At the end of the day, a young woman is dead. Many others are hurting. A family has been shattered. A summer camp that is central to our Jewish community, where so many of us have played, learned and grown up, is suffering.
At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with Camp Tawonga, its campers, counselors and staff. And above all, they are with the Rittenberg family, whose loss is incalculable. We mourn with you, for this beautiful child.