Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Major Fire Ravages Boston Moishe House

A large fire damaged the Boston-area home that serves as headquarters of the local Jewish social justice group Moishe Kavod House on Thursday morning.

No residents were hurt in the three-alarm blaze, according to Helen Bennett, a member of the local group’s board. But local television station 7 News Boston reported that a firefighter suffered a minor back injury.

Video of the fire posted on Twitter shows flames bursting from an upper floor window.

Bennett, who spoke to the Forward from the home, on Winthrop Road in Brookline, Mass., said that the condition of the building was “not great.”

Moishe Kavod House is a local Boston affiliate of the Jewish nonprofit Moishe House, which funds 86 similar residences around the world. The group subsidizes expenses for a small number of young adults who live at each house and create Jewish programming for their peers.

Moishe House CEO David Cygielman said that his organization was ready to assist the displaced residents. “We’re going to follow their lead,” he said.

Cygielman said that there was no program going on at the house at the time of the fire. “Right now we’re in touch with the residents to support them and try to figure out what happened and what those next steps [are],” he said.

The Boston-based Moishe Kavod House has a particular focus on activism. Recent posts on the group’s Twitter page show marchers under signs reading “Jews Against Trump.” According to the group’s website, the house currently houses four “resident organizers.”

Within minutes of the group posting news of the fire on its Facebook page, representatives from a local synagogue, Temple Beth Zion, and a local Unitarian Universalist church had posted to offer assistance.

“Let Boston Workmen’s Circle Center for Jewish Culture and Social Justice know if theres anything we can do,” wrote another commenter.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to local television station NECN.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

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.