A collective herculean effort from the Rockaway Nassau Safety Patrol (RNSP Shomrim), Chesed Shel Emes, Achiezer, the Jewish Community Council of the Rockaway Peninsula, and Rabbi Eitan Feiner of the White Shul will result in the halachic kevurah of a true meis mitzvah, a Jewish man killed in a horrific vehicular homicide incident in Far Rockaway this past Shabbos.
Milton Phillip Storch was one of two innocent bystanders struck outside 601 Beach 20th Street by an irate driver who was attempting to ram her vehicle into someone else that she was in a dispute with. 59-year-old Milton Storch was critically injured, and paramedics rushed him to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, where he died shortly after his arrival.
When the name of the victim was released, local askanim immediately sprang into action. They reached out to the hospital to ascertain if the deceased was a Jew and therefore in need of advocacy for a proper Jewish burial. St. John’s wasn’t immediately forthcoming with information. As it turns out, Mr. Storch was not known within the Jewish community, and the hospital actually had him identified as being Christian.
Not comfortable with this assertion, particularly based on his Jewish sounding name, askanim from various organizations dug deeper to find out his true identity. Members of the RNSP, Chesed Shel Emes, Achiezer and the JCCRP delved into the details, contacting hospitals, nursing homes, neighbors and friends of Mr. Storch in order to scrape for every bit of information they could find about him. After significant effort they were able to gain contact with estranged family members, and in doing so they were able to conclusively determine that Mr. Storch was in fact fully Jewish, the product of a Jewish father and mother.
Chesed Shel Emes immediately took on the financial responsibility of ensuring kavod hameis, and Rabbi Eitan Finer of the White Shul agreed to perform the levaya service. The RNSP worked with Chesed Shel Emes in making arrangements to bury Mr. Storch in the Chesed Shel Emes Cemetery in Woodridge, New York.
The levaya is scheduled to take place today, Wednesday August 31st, at 5:15 pm in the parking lot of the White Shul located at 728 Empire Avenue in Far Rockaway, NY. This meis mitzvah will then be brought by Chesed Shel Emes to their Woodridge cemetery for a proper Jewish kevurah.
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8 Responses
מי כעמך ישראל!
B’DE תנצבה
Chesed starts at home so many frum families cant afford the chelkas and the huge price tag $$$$ of a decent kevurah
There’s so much money for the dead and not enough for the living. Me keamcha Yisroel?
Bless our Families……..this is off the wall incredible……maybe this man as well can bleed the American Justice System of Millions like the Black pan handler got or Floyd…..filth of injustice is so criminal……the Black women should go to jail and never get out
The sad part that no one is saying, that this man was dumped into a adult home and left to rot, where were all the machers to help him when he was suffering when he was alive.
@ commonsaychel, before you suggest and ask questions about the machers , let me ask you, did you ever put your finger in cold water to help someone?? Usually the people giving advice are the people who just make noise and never put their hands in cold water to help someone
I think the mind boggling part is that it is precisely because he was killed in such an horrendous way that caused his death and his name to be in the news and therfore askonim were able to get involved. Think about it-hospital had him listed as Christian which likely means his nursing home didn’t know of his Jewish roots either. Very sad mention of estranged family etc but think about this he was zoche to Jewish burial because his death was in the news! How wonderous are the ways of Hashem.