Shabbat Fire Dad Grieves at 7 Children’s Graves in Jerusalem
Image by Getty Images
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.
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.
