Exploiting A Tragedy To Bash The Upper West SideWhile I was in Israel, a 25 year old modern Orthodox woman living in the Upper West Side jumped from an eighth floor window to her death.
Unfortunately, I've recently come across bloggers who have used this tragedy as a means with which to bash the singles scene in the Upper West Side.
I certainly have no problem with criticism of the UWS scene, but this tragedy surely has nothing to do with that. Some people like living in the UWS. Some don't like it, and move away. Some don't like it, but stay, because being single in the UWS is for them still preferable to being single in another community. Many - perhaps most - like some aspects and dislike other aspects. I fell into the last category during my UWS stint.
While I'm not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, I think it's obvious that this young woman was suffering from severe clinical depression. Her suicide is a terrible tragedy for her, for her family, for her friends, and for the Jewish world. Likely, setbacks in her personal life were the final straw before she ended her life, but ultimately they were only tangentially related to that tragedy. The primary and proximate cause was clinical depression.
Bloggers who baselessly and speculatively use this woman's death to bash the UWS should be ashamed of themselves for exploiting a tragedy for the sake of a provocative post.
posted on 8/09/2006
