Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Survivors Of Brooklyn Hanukkah House Fire Released From Hospital

(JTA) — The surviving members of a Brooklyn family whose house burned down in a fire started by a Hanukkah menorah were released from the hospital.

Yossi Azan and two of his children — daughter Shalit, 16, and son Daniel, 15 — were released from a local hospital this week, the Yeshiva World News reported.

His wife, Aliza, and three other children — sons Moshe, 11 and Yitzah, 7, and a daughter, Henrietta, 3 — were killed in the blaze early on the morning of Dec. 18, 2017. Two younger boys, a son currently living with a grandfather in Israel and a cousin, escaped with minor injuries.

It is not known when the three family members who were released from the hospital will visit the graves of those who perished. They are buried in the Israeli city of Holon.

Yossi Azan is credited with saving the injured children and reportedly attempted more than once to run into the burning home to save the rest of his family.

A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $684,000 of a $750,000 goal to help the family, which lost everything in the fire. The funds will be used for medical expenses that will not be covered by insurance, including plastic surgery.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

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.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.