A heartbreaking tragedy has struck the South Bend Jewish community as Chana Malka Zweig, age 21, and her brother, Yosef Yehuda Zweig, age 18, passed away after drowning in Lake Michigan. The siblings were on a family vacation when the incident occurred on Monday while they were boating on Lake Michigan, known for unpredictable conditions that can quickly become dangerous.
Emergency responders rushed to the scene after reports that the two had drowned, and both were pulled from the water and transported to McLaren Northern Michigan Hospital, where medical teams fought to save their lives.
Tragically, they were later pronounced dead.
Chana Malka and Yosef Yehuda were the children of Rabbi Yehoshua and Hadassa Zweig of South Bend.
They were the grandchildren of HaRav Yochanan Zweig, shlit"a, Rosh Yeshiva and founder of the Talmudic University of Florida, Yeshiva V'Kollel Beis Moshe Chaim, in Miami Beach. The institution has served as a prominent center of Torah learning in the American Jewish community for decades.
The Zweig family joins a community bound by shared grief over the loss of young lives to water-related accidents.
The circumstances of the Lake Michigan incident remain under investigation. Officials have not yet released additional information about the circumstances that led to the drowning.
The South Bend Jewish community and the broader Orthodox world are in mourning following the tragedy.
