Online Campaign Raises Over $550,000 For Survivors Of Brooklyn Hanukkah Fire
Image by Nikki Casey
(JTA) — A crowdfunding campaign created to aid the surviving family members of a Hanukkah house fire in Brooklyn has raised over $550,000 in eight days.
Aliza Azan, 39, her sons Moshe, 11 and Yitzah, 7, and a daughter, Henrietta, 3, died in an early morning house fire on Dec. 18. Police are looking into whether the blaze was started by a Hanukkah menorah, even though the house had a working smoke detector.
Three of the four surviving family members remain on respirators and are being treated for burns, Vos Iz Neis reported. Yosi Azan — who is credited with saving his surviving children and attempting to save the others by running into the burning building — and his son Daniel, 15, were transferred to Weill Cornell Medical Center. His daughter Shilat, 16, remains at Staten Island University Hospital with multiple broken bones.
Avraham Azan, 13, the one survivor without injuries, traveled to Israel for the burial of his mother and siblings. He will return to New York where he will stay with relatives, according to the report. A cousin who was sleeping in the house also survived with minor injuries.
The GoFundMe campaign was created by Rabbi David Ozeri, the family’s rabbi, who hopes to raise $1 million for the Azans.
“A very large chunk of that will be used for medical expenses that will not be covered by insurance, including plastic surgery,” Ozeri told VIN. “The Azans did not own a home and had no renter’s insurance … They had no savings, nothing. Everything is gone down to the last spoon.”
Hundreds of people gathered for a funeral in Brooklyn, and thousands attended the funeral and burial in Holon, Israel, where Aliza Azan grew up.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
