Shabbat Fire Dad Grieves at 7 Children’s Graves in Jerusalem
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The father of the seven children who died in a house fire in Brooklyn returned to the Jerusalem cemetery where they are buried to mark the shloshim, or 30 days since their death.
Dozens of men joined Rabbi Gabriel Sassoon on Tuesday to pray at the children’s graves, following his request for people to join him during an interview earlier in the day on a haredi Orthodox radio station, the Vos iz Neis news website reported.
The seven white headstones placed in one row each bear the name of one of the children, followed by the words “pure soul.”
Sassoon was out of town at a religious conference when the fire consumed his home shortly after midnight on March 22.
Officials have blamed an unattended hot plate warming Shabbat meals as the cause.
Sassoon’s wife, Gayle, and one of his daughters, Tziporah, 15, both escaped the blaze by leaping from the house. Tziporah, who was badly burned, reportedly will come home from the hospital next week, according to VIN. Gayle Sassoon remains in a coma.
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