Gabbai Moshe Leon of the Eitz Chaim Shul in Kiryat Ono is planning to sit shiva for the eight burned sifrei torah.
The shul was established 40 years ago, by immigrants from Turkey living in the city. During the years that followed, every amount, no matter how small, was saved towards improving and beautifying the shul and eventually opening a kollel.
Most of the mispallalim are in their 70s and over and the gabbai, who is generally the bal tefilla was the first to discover the tragedy as he arrived at about 18:00 on shabbos. He saw the black smoke and fire trucks as he approached the block of the shul.
“We cried over the sifrei torah” explained Leon in a broken tone, adding “now I must begin sitting shiva”; realizing firefighters were simply unable to get inside to save the sifrei torah or the shul due to the intensity of the flames.
Fire investigators are still inspecting the scene to determine the cause, but it appears an electrical short circuit started the blaze.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
Indeed a tragedy, but if they placed such great value on the seforim, why wouldn’t they have installed some type of sprinkler or fire supression system or otherwise stored the seforim in a fireproof aron.