A couple who lived in Australia for almost 20 years is among those missing in the Surfside disaster.

In more recent years, Tzvi and Itty Ainsworth, in their 60s, moved to Florida to be near their children, but still split their time between Australia and Miami. They have seven children, with many living in Florida, including a daughter who lives just blocks away.

Their niece, Chanale Fellig-Harrel, told the Associated Press that her aunt and uncle were celebrating the birth of two grandchildren. Their son in South Africa recently had a baby, and their son in Florida had a baby just days before the collapse.

Itty’s mother, a Holocaust survivor who is currently battling cancer, also lives in Miami Beach. She wasn’t told about the disaster due to her illness.

“There really are no words to express the pain that the community feels in relation to the entire tragedy and of course the two special people that we know and love,” an emotional Rabbi Nochum Schapiro, president of the Rabbinical Council of NSW, told The Australian Jewish News.

“We as Jews know the adage from the Gemara that even if a sharp sword is hovering over your neck, do not stop begging for mercy.

“And so the community is urged to daven, to say Tehillim, and to do mitzvos so that a neis happens.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)