The following was published in the letters section of the Hebrew edition of Yated Ne'eman. We are including here because it is of broad relevance, and it is to be hoped that the publicity will ensure that such incidents are handled better in the future.
We, the sons of the late R' Uri Boyer zt"l, would like to praise and thank many of our fellow Jews.
Our father z"l, who was a special individual during his lifetime, fell ill in recent years and arrived by car after the chuppah to take part in his son's wedding. To our great sadness, he suffered a heart attack and passed away before entering the hall. Based on instructions from HaRav Chaim Kanievsky shlita, hundreds of guests who heard about the matter did not divulge it in order to continue the celebration and to hide the matter from the mourners until the morning.
The joy and the dancing continued strong. For this we extend our words of praise to all — the owners of the Wagshall Hall, the band, the singer R' Areleh Samet, and above all the students of Yeshivas Chochmoh VeDaas of Rechovot, who made tremendous efforts to bring great joy despite the difficult circumstances, as is written, "Chazu bonai chavivai demishtakechin betzoroh dilehon ve'askin bechedveso Dili."
We hereby declare our strong objections to the various reporters and broadcasters who descended on the scoop as if they'd come upon a great treasure. In the midst of the wedding they broadcast the tragedy to the whole world on the various news stations and Internet news sites, including names and pictures, even before all of the relatives had been notified. They also added their own commentary and fabricated details, saying he had died as a result of the pressure of debts, which is completely untrue. They claimed that the dancing continued despite the mourning, as if we did not care!
Another deeply damaging effect was that some of the mourners learned of the tragedy through these rumors rather than in a controlled fashion, and in many cases this had detrimental effects. It was truly miraculous that some of the mourners not hear about the tragedy until the morning.
Furthermore, well-known newspapers then came along and reported the tragedy with distortions, quoting the false information without proper fact-checking!
All of those who took part in this wrong added needless grief and suffering to the family!
May we know no more suffering,
The Family
