Jerusalem – Seven Jewish siblings who died in a devastating New York house fire were laid to rest in Jerusalem on Monday at an emotional ceremony attended by several thousand mourners.
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Friends and relatives of the Sassoon family attended the service, as well as supporters who only learned of the tragedy through the news. The chief rabbi of Israel and mayor of Jerusalem also paid their respects.
The bodies of the children, ages 5 to 16, were flown to Israel overnight from New York and were immediately taken to Jerusalem in a convoy escorted by police. According to Jewish tradition, funerals take place as soon as possible after death.
“Why seven? Seven beautiful lilies,” the children’s father, Gabriel Sassoon, cried out in an anguished eulogy. “So pure. So pure.”
He recounted how his children enjoyed studying the Torah and other Jewish texts.
“They were such innocent children,” he said, his voice choking up. He later called out the names of his children, one by one.
Sassoon described how his wife, although burned, managed to jump out of a second-floor window to try and get help to save her children.
He said he is drawing on his faith for strength.
The children’s bodies, wrapped in shrouds, were placed on stretchers for the memorial service, held in a room at Jerusalem’s main cemetery packed with scores of mourners. Thousands more stood outside.
Some mourners rocked back and forth in prayer, their cheeks wet with tears, as they listened to the eulogies. Afterward, many in the crowd walked with the family in a procession to bury the bodies.
Rabbi David Lau, Israel’s chief rabbi for Ashkenazi — or European — Jews, described the fire as an unspeakable tragedy and urged the family to remain strong. “Each one is a flower in God’s garden,” he said.
The fire has shattered the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. Investigators believe it was caused when a hot plate, left on for the Jewish Sabbath, malfunctioned, setting off flames that incinerated the stairs of their home, trapping the children in their second-floor bedrooms as they slept.
The blaze killed three girls and four boys. Both the mother and a daughter — Gayle Sassoon and 14-year-old Siporah Sassoon — remain in critical condition. New York fire officials have described the blaze as the city’s worst house fire in recent memory.
The tragedy had some reconsidering the practice of keeping hot plates on for the Sabbath, a common modern method of obeying tradition prohibiting the use of fire on the holy day.
Israeli media have said the family lived in Jerusalem before moving to New York two years ago. The tragedy dominated Israeli newscasts.
Alon Edri, who identified himself as a rabbi and relative of the family, said it was significant for them to be buried in the Holy Land.
“We believe that being buried in Israel is important because all of your sins are then absolved,” he said.
Listen below Father delivers eulogy:
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This might be the most heartbreaking frum community tragedy in NYC since the Leiby Kletzky murder, any decent person would be troubled by this to the core.
When we say the bracha of “Mechaye Hamaysim” three times every day, we are now also talking about these Sasson children a”h, and all Yidden who passed, and ouselves. Perhaps we can help, by saying that bracha with great KAVANAH!
The Rambam teaches us that this belief in Techiyas Hamaysim is ESSENTIAL for being Jewish (Ani MA’AMIN, NUMBER 13).
When I lived in Brooklyn I was at Leiby Kletsky’s A”H levaya. I compare the pain from then with this. I looked at the pictures & watched the video of the levaya and it was too terrible to fathom. May these children have a lichtege Gan Eden & may their parents and sister heal physically and emotionally.
Mechaye Hamesim refers to non-Jews as well as Jews. All righteous people will be resurrected and have a place in olam haba. This is has been a central core of Jewish teaching from bivlical times to the Rishonim to Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, etc., etc.
The Mother & Sister will IY”H a FULL RECOVERY and a GANTZE REFUAH SHELEIMAH ‘cuz they now have SEVEN SHILUCHIM to HASHEM…………….
Please stop comparing tragedies. Each tragedy is equally sad. This one happens to be seven times sadder.
i’m just a truck driver and i had a few hours to think and my head hurts so i pulled over on the thruway a jotted a few thoughts and now they are unloading the pallets so i write these few lines
1. areivim zeh lazeh – every jew feels the pain even though most dont know them
2.how great is even a simple jew mr sason is a regular guy .. there is no such thing as a pusheti yid
3. “mee baesh ” i tremble thinking that these names were in that column on rosh hashana?
4. the human so weak a little smoke & we are snuffed out , yet look how strong a human CAN be
5 feeling the pain and being brought to tears is not weakness its gevurah
.for all those that are alive and whos children are alive LIVE LIVE prepare for the chag sieze today
Can anybody please say the name of the mother and the name of the daughter. To say Tahilim for a Rafua Shalyma,,,,Thanks
You’re not “just a truck driver,” as you described yourself. You’re a beautiful neshama, a giant of ruchnius. How moving and touching are your words. Thank you.
people during the shoah lost whole families and managed to continue and rebuild, even with long term trauma and anguish. its been done, hopefully it can happen in this case, almost impossible to think of but history proved.
I don’t think we will ever recover from this one and I don’t know them at all. How will these parents move forward. I hope and pray their families can embrace them and provide the best psychological help for them. God, please give these kind souls strength — They will need so much of it. What a magnificent family!! OY YOY YOY YOY YOY!!!
When the mother wakes up I”H, and asks about her children, WHO will be the one to tell her that seven of her eight children didn’t survive? WHO can give a mother such news? If one child had died, it would be shattering news but SEVEN?? This is unprecedented. I don’t know any mother, Jew or gentile who lost seven children. The Klauzenburger Rebbe lost his wife and eleven children in the Holocaust, but I have never met a woman who lost seven children. The Gehinom can’t be worse than this.