Infant's Death at Daycare Leads to Abuse Allegations After Recordings Surface

The parents of five-month-old Rai Greenberger, who died in his sleep at a private daycare in Gedera, have come forward with allegations of abuse after recordings from the facility were revealed. Initially, Rai's parents, Eden and Harel Greenberger, opted against an autopsy after authorities found no suspicion of foul play in their son's death. However, recordings later obtained by the parents documented severe distress among the infants, including prolonged crying, shouting, and sounds of hitting.

Eden Greenberger recounted receiving a call from the caregiver, Sima Elishiv, stating that an ambulance was treating Rai, who had not woken up and appeared blue. Despite resuscitation efforts at the hospital, medical staff pronounced Rai deceased. His father, Harel, described their desperate pleas to medical personnel to perform one last resuscitation attempt.

The obtained recordings reportedly captured infants crying for nearly an hour without response, and in other instances, sounds of hitting and the caregiver's harsh scolding. One recording features Elishiv telling a child, "I told you you're going to sleep, you'll stop... you're not getting up." Another parent, Daniel, described encountering "apparent energies of evil" at the daycare, while Matanel reported his son returned with a serious facial injury and a cut lip, which the caregiver claimed not to have seen.

Following the recordings' release, the parents filed a police complaint, leading to an investigation into Elishiv. The Greenberger family believes that while Rai cannot be brought back, the revelations may save other children from similar situations. Elishiv's legal representative denies the abuse allegations, stating the infant's death was attributed to "sudden infant death syndrome" and that the recordings are one-sided and do not accurately reflect the situation. Police confirmed an ongoing investigation into the matter.