Moshe Ehrlich was engrossed in Torah studies at his college one afternoon when he was told his wife was calling on the school’s emergency line.
Frantic, she wanted to know why he hadn’t dropped off the youngest of their six kids at the babysitter’s that morning.
‘Where’s the baby?’ she asked. ‘Where’s the baby?’
Ehrlich, 35, sprinted toward the minivan he parked hours earlier in an unshaded spot about two blocks off campus.
In the sweltering heat that had built up inside the car, the four-month-old son he had forgotten in the back seat had gone limp and unresponsive.
That boy, Yeruchem Ehrlich, was the first of seven children in the US known to have died in a hot car so far this year. The most recent was in Ormond Beach, Florida, where an 18-month-old boy died on June 6 while his father allegedly went drinking.
Data show that leaving kids in cars can be fatal in all seasons and most climates, and can happen to all kinds of families, regardless of their wealth, race, religion, town or how much they love their children.
Yet Yeruchem’s death wasn’t a one-off for Lakewood.
Yeruchem Ehrlich was the first of seven children in the US known to have died in a hot car so far this year
An investigation by the Daily Mail found that this east central New Jersey township of 155,000 residents has experienced more of these tragedies per capita than any other community in the US.
About 70% of locals are ultra-Orthodox, also known as Haredi, making up the highest concentration of Jews outside of Israel that follow their strict interpretation of Jewish law.
Our analysis of case data shows members of this insular community have fatally forgotten more kids in hot cars than residents of some of the biggest cities in the nation.
In fact, the five children reported to have died of vehicular heatstroke here since 1990 outnumber kids killed in the entire states of Delaware, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wyoming.
Two of the local deaths occurred in the last 11 months – both babies in the care of fathers who accidentally left them in cars on their way to study at yeshivas.
Those two cases alone account for more than 5% of hot car deaths nationally during that time period even though Lakewood residents make up only 0.04% of the US population.
‘This is a tragedy of epic proportions,’ says Yosef Jacobovitch, the defense lawyer representing both fathers. ‘In a community where we value life above all, to lose one child is to lose the world.’
A local paramedic told us he knows of nine close calls involving Haredi kids in Lakewood and nearby communities of Jackson, Toms River and Howell in the past year.
‘Something’s definitely out of whack,’ says the EMT, himself a yeshiva student who insists that his name not be published for fear of being ostracized by his community.
‘We have a problem here, and it doesn’t seem to be improving.’
Why Lakewood?
Several factors may help explain the high frequency of these incidents – one is family size.
Haredi women typically marry and start families at age 19 or 20, and have an average of five children – although some have more.
The high birth rate here puts more than half of the township’s population under 18 years of age.
Having big families is, in the Haredi community, partly a way to honor a Torah commandment to ‘be fruitful and multiply.’
It’s also seen as a way to ensure the continuation of Jewish life and culture for generations to come, especially after the Holocaust killed 6 million Jews.
Large broods are, in these parts, a sign of piety and success.
In terms of risk, however, the odds of tragedy striking is greater in a bigger family.
A Daily Mail investigation has found that no community in the US has experienced more of these tragedies per capita than Lakewood, New Jersey, a township of 155,000 residents
‘With multiple children in the home, the chances for things going awry increase,’ Rollins says.
The nexus between economics and religion is another factor. In Haredi communities, mothers are often the bread-winners, working full time to enable their husbands – especially those in the first five or 10 years of a marriage – to attend Jewish studies schools for at least several hours a day.
Torah study – for which some men earn a small stipend, if anything – is a central tenet of their faith, a source of spiritual well-being, a key to understanding oneself and the world, a guide to having a strong family and a way to protect the Jewish people and Israel.
The tendency not to have a stay-at-home parent means Haredi kids spend more time in cars being shuttled to and from various sitters, day care centers and schools.
The way those facilities are organized in Lakewood is yet another factor. Kids here typically receive day care and education specifically tailored to their ages and genders.
‘If you have six kids, your days can involve going to four or five places in the morning, then doing it all over again in the afternoons,’ one Haredi mother of six told us. ‘The logistics can be hectic and stressful on parents, and that can lead to more accidents.’
‘We could homeschool our kids like they do in Utah, not take them to synagogue or places that inspire them, not give them proper education,’ says Chaim Sinai Orbach, a local businessman.
‘If we stayed home all day and didn’t have such busy, meaningful lives, these accidents would be less likely to happen.’
Family size is one of the several factors that may help explain the high frequency of hot-car incidents in Lakewood
Another factor has to do with a tolerance for heat.
Even in the warming weather, Haredi men wear prayer shawls, black suits and hats, and women wear wigs or head coverings, sweaters and stockings.
‘These clothes aren’t negotiable in our culture, so we tend to ignore the feeling of being hot,’ the paramedic says.
A final factor cited by some in the community involves pressure on fathers to make it to their yeshivas on time.
Promptness is a mark of diligence, and tardiness can be a sign of disrespect to study partners waiting for them.
‘There’s a lot of pressure because time is of the essence,’ Orbach says. ‘That can cause distraction.’
Tragic tales
Moshe Ehrlich is a Talmudic law student locals describe as a soft-spoken, loving father who was unusually involved in the daily care of his six kids.
Police records show that on March 18, when his 6-year-old missed the school bus, he was tasked with taking him to school, then dropping off his 2- and 4-year-olds at daycare, and then driving baby Yeruchem to his sitter.
Once arriving at the sitter’s, Erlich realized he had forgotten breast milk that his wife, Faiga had pumped for the four-month-old.
He drove home to fetch the bags of milk, with Yeruchem still in the back seat.
Ehrlich told authorities he had long feared forgetting one of his children in the car and had methods for remembering to drop off the baby at the sitter, including asking Faiga to remind him.
The street in Lakewood where Moshe Ehrlich forgot his son four-month-old son, Yeruchem, in the back of his car while studying Torah
Knowing the logistics that morning were more complicated than usual, she – on her way to her job at a local real estate company – stayed on the phone with her husband as a precaution while he dropped off the first three kids and headed home for the forgotten milk.
At that point, she hung up the phone, figuring Ehrlich was sure to drop off Yeruchem at the sitter’s next.
Instead of doing so, however, he drove to a street near his yeshiva, Beth Medrash Govoha, parked his Toyota Sienna in an available spot, and went inside to study.
He said he forgot Yeruchem in the barely visible backward-facing car seat, accidentally leaving him there for at least two-and-a-half hours while the temperature in the minivan reached 96.2 F, despite that day’s high temperature of only 63 F.
The babysitter texted Faiga inquiring about the baby’s whereabouts, but Faiga didn’t see the message for more than an hour.
Because men turn off their phones during Torah study, Erhlich didn’t notice or answer the sitter’s calls directly to him, nor those from his wife as morning turned to afternoon.
The sitter sent her son to run to the yeshiva. He arrived just as Faiga reached her husband there by phone asking about the baby.
By the time Ehrlich ran to unlock the minivan, it was too late to save Yeruchem.
Beth Medrash Govoha, the Lakewood yeshiva outside of which several fathers haven reportedly left their children in hot cars while they studying
Ehrlich surrendered to police and was arrested two days later. Police charged him with second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, and a judge released him within hours.
He was able to return to his yeshiva after the traditional week-long mourning period.
Jacobovitch, his lawyer, expects the case will be resolved with a plea deal and probation – putting Ehrlich among the 50% of adults responsible for hot-car deaths whose cases result in a criminal conviction.
‘He was a quiet person to begin with, now he’s even quieter,’ Jacobovitch says of his client.
‘There’s nothing in the world he wanted more than to have this child grow up. He’s going to have to live with this for the rest of his life.’
Ehrlich refused to discuss his son’s death with the Daily Mail.
‘It’s not news,’ he told us by phone. ‘Nobody should be interested.’
The Ehrlich case bore striking similarities to one in July 2024, when eight-week-old Chana Chaitovsky died in a hot car as her father, Avraham Chaitovsky, then 28, attended his Lakewood yeshiva.
Jacobovitch, who also represents Chaitovsky, says Chana was an IVF baby conceived out of hope and born to Avraham and his wife Chaya.
‘They’re wonderful people and she was very much wanted.’
Monday, July 15, was Chana’s first day at daycare. Chaitovsky dropped off his 4-year-old son at school, taking care to bring his infant daughter in with him rather than leaving her in the car.
After, as if by routine, he drove right past the day care center where he was supposed to drop her off and parked a few doors away at his yeshiva, Kollel Cheshek Shlomo, forgetting the baby in the backseat.
While studying, he missed calls from the day care center asking about Chana’s whereabouts. Once he realized his mistake, he sprinted outside, dropped his phone along the way and screamed.
Eight-week-old Chana Chaitovsky died in a hot car in July 2024 while her father, Avraham Chaitovsky, then 28, attended his yeshiva in Lakewood
He found his baby daughter lifeless inside the Toyota Camry – the heat had climbed to 117.6 F.
Chaitovsky told a paramedic the baby had been in the car for a ‘few hours,’ although it turned out to be more than four, police records show.
He faces the same second-degree endangering the welfare of a child charge as Ehrlich, although he was put on house arrest after the tragedy.
Chaitovsky also refused to comment, citing his pending criminal case and saying upon answering his front door that, ‘It’s still too raw to discuss.’
‘Maybe come back in six months when we’ve had more time to heal,’ his wife added.
Lakewood resident Chaya Shurkin, 31, wouldn’t discuss the May 2019 death of her 21-month old daughter, Devorah Reichenberg, whom she left unattended in a hot car in the driveway for two and a half hours.
The parking lot of Kollel Cheshek Shlomo, where Avraham Chaitovsky forgot his eight-week-old daughter, Chana, in a hot car
‘Go away, and don’t write about this. I’ve put all that behind me,’ she said after another young daughter answered her front door.
Two other requests for comment by affected Lakewood residents went unanswered -one with an infant who reportedly died in 2004 and another in 1998.
Guilt and shame
Silence among families isn’t unusual in these cases.
Hot-car deaths and close calls come with intense guilt and shame among parents, who often request that their identities – and those of their children – not be revealed publicly.
A mix of horror and disbelief is visible in some of their mugshots.
‘After having worked very closely with a lot of these families, I can tell you that having their names out there just destroys them in ways you couldn’t imagine,’ Rollins says.
‘On top of never trusting themselves and just completely wanting to die because they took the lives of their own child, some have lost their professional licenses, been put on child-abuse and neglect directories, can’t adopt or foster children, face death threats and serious judgement in their communities.’
The corner of a cemetery in Lakewood where children who have died in hot cars have been buried
Paramedics from Hatzolah, a private ambulance service for Lakewood’s Haredi community, have responded to dozens of incidents involving children left in hot cars
What is unusual in Lakewood, however, is the silence about such cases among elected, civic and religious leaders.
The mayor, Ray Coles, four township committee members and the town manager did not respond to the Daily Mail’s repeated requests for comment.
We also did not hear back from state assemblyman Rabbi Avi Schnall and prosecutor Bradley Billhimer, whose office refused to make public the names of the young victims.
The Jewish Federation, Jewish Family Services and Lakewood Community Safety Watch also did not return the Daily Mail’s request for comment.
None of the 12 rabbis and administrators we reached out to at Beth Medrash Govoha would discuss the issue, even though two fathers were studying in the yeshiva when their kids died and an undisclosed number of its other students have had close-calls with their children.
Rollins lauds Lakewood and other Jewish communities for protecting families in times of trauma.
‘These cases are so horrible that they just want to create bubbles around the families,’ she says.
Still, she worries about a lack of transparency regarding hot-car cases in any community, regardless of its demographics.
‘We already suspect that the number of reported cases are just the tip of the iceberg,’ she says. ‘We need more people aware of the problem and fewer brushing it under the rug.’
