To Aleh: Time for transparency

The death of a 41 year old woman living at Aleh Gedera ["Following a Covid-19 death at Aleh, a troubling silence"] was reported on April 14. Nevertheless, there is still no acknowledgement anywhere on the Aleh sites or Facebook pages of her passing. She was one of the youngest of Israel's victims of the virus.

Despite studiously ignoring that tragedy, Aleh's PR hacks have utilized Covid 19 to the hilt for its fundraising activities.

Aleh staged a lavish welcoming splash - Israeli flags lined the streets, music blared from a van - to greet the return of four other residents who had been hospitalized for weeks with Covid-19. 

On April 14, the news services reported that nine Aleh residents were hospitalized in several hospitals. What is the current condition of the remaining five? Aleh has not shared that information with the public.

This obfuscation on the part of Aleh, Israel's largest chain of closed institutions for people with disabilities is beyond objectionable. It is the height of insensitivity and callousness towards its vulnerable, helpless population, many of whom are babies and children.

This attitude is coupled with a freewheeling approach toward utilizing its healthy residents for photo ops. So on Yom Hashoa, numerous photos of "commemoration" of the day in Aleh institutions were posted on its sites. 

As the mother of a 25 year old daughter with profound and complex disabilities, I can assure you that not one of the residents pictured grasped the significance of the day in any sense! The photos made a mockery of Yom Hashoa by mining it for financial gain.

As a bereaved mother whose child was murdered in the terror bombing of Sbarro in 2001, I dread seeing how Aleh's heartless PR team will cash in on Yom Hazikaron next week. But I have little doubt that is just what they intend to do.