(JTA) — Arson investigators in Houston are trying to determine what started a fire in an area Orthodox Jewish synagogue. The fire started on Wednesday evening at the Torah Vachesed synagogue, while dozens of members were inside for a study session, the Houston Chronicle reported. Police deputies who were in the area entered the synagogue…
(JTA) — The final summer session of Camp Tawonga in Northern California has been canceled due to smoke from the Ferguson Forest Fire. In a letter to parents also posted on social media, the director of the Jewish camp, Jamie Simon, said that “the U.S. Forest Service, the Tuolumne County Health Department and CAL FIRE…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Hamas terror organization may cease sending incendiary kites and balloons into Israeli territory, the Palestinian Al Quds newspaper reported on Wednesday. Over the past several months, thousands of acres of Israeli farmland and nature reserves have been torched by incendiary devices sent over the border. According to sources quoted by Al-Quds,…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinians in Gaza flew a kite over the border carrying a fire bomb, which started a fire where it touched down. The Molotov cocktail-laden kite bearing the colors of the Palestinian flag that landed near a southern Israeli kibbutz on Sunday is not the first effort by Gazan Palestinians to start fires…
An eight-year-old Israeli girl made a dramatic jump to safety after her family’s Be’er Sheva apartment caught on fire. The Sunday blaze killed a two-year-old girl and left a four-year-old boy critically injured, Times of Israel reported. The girl’s six-month old brother is in stable condition. The girl was hesitant to make the leap off…
(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….
A version of this post appeared in Rabbi Ovadia’s daily newsletter. It is important to understand the laws of putting out fire on Shabbat. There are lengthy discussions in the Mishnah, the Talmud, and Halachaic literature, which I have thoroughly analyzed below. Meanwhile, here are the essential guidelines: • Make sure fire alarms are installed…
Today, The Forward’s esteemed Editor-at-Large, J.J. Goldberg, penned an opinion piece in response to the tragic fire in a Brooklyn home that killed an Orthodox mother and three of her children early Monday morning. The headline took me aback. “Why So Many Brooklyn Orthodox Jews Are Dying In Tragic Fires” seems to blame the victims…
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