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Israeli rabbi drowns in London mikveh after suffering a heart attack

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No inquest will be held into the death of an Israeli rabbi who collapsed in a mikveh before Shabbat last Friday.

Rabbi Natan Dunnett, the head of a yeshivah run by the Boyan Chasidic sect, who was in his late 50s, was reported by Israeli media to have suffered a heart attack and drowned. The coroner’s office covering the North London borough of Hackney said that the cause of death was “not in the public domain” and an inquest was unnecessary.

Rabbi Dunnett, who was in Stamford Hill to raise funds for his yeshivah, went to a mikveh for men at one of the local steibls to prepare for Shabbat.Many Chasidic men ritually bathe every day and before and during Shabbat.

According to the website Behadrey Haredim, attempts were made to resuscitate him but he died after being taken to Homerton Hospital.

The mikveh was cordoned off during the rest of Friday but was allowed to reopen for Shabbat morning.

Rabbi Dunnett’s body was released on Tuesday morning and flown to Israel for burial the following day.

But a Stamford Hill source said there had been concern within the Orthodox community that an earlier funeral had not been possible as “the coroner was not available until Monday”.

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