Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Fund to Assist Parents With Day School Tuition Set up In Sassoon Children Name

A fund to assist parents who cannot afford to pay day school tuition has been established in memory of the seven children who died in a Shabbat house fire in Brooklyn.

The Sassoon Children Memorial Fund will be administered by the New York-based Jewish Communal Fund.

In addition, according to Yeshiva World News, a Torah scroll will be written by the Misaskim Organization in memory of the children and for the recovery of the children’s mother, Gayle, and sister, Tziporah, who are being treated for smoke inhalation and burns in separate New York hospitals. They escaped the fire, which broke out shortly after midnight Saturday, by jumping out second-floor windows.

Misaskim, based in Brooklyn, provides assistance during crises, including supporting and assisting the bereaved and watching over the deceased.

Several fraudulent fundraisers in memory of the children have appeared online since the tragedy, Yeshiva World News reported.

Meanwhile, the children’s father, Gabriel Sassoon, was interviewed on Tuesday evening in Israel following the funeral and burial of his seven children, ages 5 to 16.

“I saw today the greatness of the Jewish nation,” Sassoon told the “Mabat” news program. “I thought, ‘Who will come to the levaya [funeral]?’ But I saw so many people and I was proud to be part of the Jewish nation.”

Sassoon spoke about his children and the happiness they brought him.

“I had such nachas [happiness] from my children. They were really special children,” he said. “I have had difficulties previously in my life, but they never bothered me because I had my kids. The happiness that they brought me made my life easy, but now I don’t have them. I don’t know what I will do. We were privileged to have children like this.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.