FIRST REPORT 9:00PM EST: (UPDATE BELOW) YWN has learned that two people were R”L killed just after Shabbos in Teaneck, NJ after a tree fell on them.
According to highly credible sources, the two victims were leaving the “Bnei Yeshurun Shul” after Shabbos, when the tree fell on them.
Teaneck Police Chaplain Rabbi Abe Friedman(who has been requested & responding to the scene) tells YWN that the two victims are still trapped underneath the trees, and rescue workers are working on the scene.
Misaskim is responding to the scene as well.
UPDATE 11:15PM EST: The two victims have been identified as Mr. Ovadia Mussaffi Z”L (the Shul’s president), and and his neighbor Mr. Larry Kraus Z”L. Levaya details are not available at this time.
Misaskim along with Rabbi Abe Friedman are on the scene coordinating efforts with the local Medical Examiner and local authorities.
UPDATE 8;00AM EST: [The following is a report by WCBSTV:]
The winds were howling last night, strong enough to bring down large tree limbs and, in the worst cases, entire trees. In one of Teaneck’s predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, where residents on the Sabbath walk home from synagogue, the timing of last night’s storm couldn’t have been worse.
“My best friend was coming back from synagogue and the tree fell on him,” said Rabbi Pimchus Bobrovski.
The victim, Larry Krause, was a well-known Manhattan-based attorney.
“I’m really shocked,” Bobrovski said. “We don’t now anything yet, unfortunately.”
The Teaneck Police Chief provided more information. “This is one of those freak situations, you know. it’s a 50-foot tree that snapped about 10 feet off the ground, snapped completely off, in half and just fell on top of them. It’s just an unfortunate situation with the high winds.”
Teaneck police confirm Mr. Krause and another unidentified man were killed when a tall tree snapped under the force of strong winds and fell on them.
“Just coming from the synagogue, and never made it home,” Bobrovsky said.
(Yehuda Drudgestein – YWN)
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41 Responses
BDE. One of them has a newborn baby. What a tragedy. Klal Yisroel has to do Teshuva.
update this with names plz!!
Please continue to post,
do you have names
Please put out names!!!
Does anyone have The names?
To #1:
Another site has the victims a”h identified, aged 50 and 52. Are you sure about your information?
Anymore info? What a tragedy!!
I heard that the two men were identified as Mr. Ovadi Musafi age 52, and Mr. Lawrence Krause age 50.
Baruch Dayan HaEmes
Joe:
Unless you plan on learning Mishnayos and doing other things lzecher nishmasam their names are meaningless to you. Please don’t be a yenta on their cheshbon.
Ovadia ben Anwar was his hebrew name. He was the president of the sephardic congregation of teaneck. He leaves behind a wife and 4 young kids aged 6 to 12.
He really dedicated his life to the synagogue and put so much time and effort into helping it run. He was really an amazing man and will be greatly missed by the community and friends and family.
Ovadia and Larry Krause were walking home from shul after shabbat was over when the accident happened. Baruch dayan haemet.
Baruch Dayan Haaemess! What a terrible tragedy! We all must all do teshuva and ensure we have achdus among all Yidden. We must strive for a Kiddush Hashem always in our personal and business lives.
May the bereaved families have much nechama. Hamakom yenachem eschem betoch shaar availei Zion ve Yerushalayim.
What can we learn here? Don’t go outside in such horrible weather.
Missing a minyan is sometimes preferable to taking such risks!
WellInformedYid, just to inform you, there is a mitzva to judge a fellow Jew favorably. There are other mitzvos one can do besides learning mishnayos, such as nichum aveilim. Why not look at a fellow Jew kindly and assume he knows people in the community, is concerned and would like to be menachem avel if appropriate rather than his question stemming from mere curiousity?
We must all practice being less judgemental of each other! Is going out in a storm considered such an awful risk to the point that one must anticipate a tree possibly falling on one’s head?! Would you not go to work for that reason?
Midda k’negged midda; we don’t want Hashem to judge us harshly. Please, let’s be kind to ourselves and each other. Maybe then Hashem will judge Klal Yisrael favorably and we will merit the geula.
Baruch Dayan Haemes at least they finished a mitzvah b/4 R’L this tragedy happened.
Baruch dayan haemet. Mr. Breslauer, do you think you can cheat the “Malach Hamovess” by not ever going to shul? This is a freak accident, and was clearly meant for these two special people. Maybe we should learn to strengthen ourselves in tefilla betzibur instead.
“What can we learn here? Don’t go outside in such horrible weather. Missing a minyan is sometimes preferable to taking such risks!” Are you really serious? This is less likely than someone who gets hit by lightning! I highly doubt that’s the lesson from here. This is such a tragedy and freak accident that it was obviously their time to go, and maybe Hashem gave them the oppurtunity to do a mitzva prior to their ptira. BD”E
Right on #17 Smartaleck.
Daniel brelauer
Are you a posek that you can make such a wrong statement if you wouldn’t brave the storm to go to minyan what would you brave it for to go to work or to a bar ?!?! Is that better than going to minyan ?!?!
You realy need some help my freind before your krummah hashkafah take you off the deep end
A simple but huge zchus everyone can do for raising their neshamot is shvitat dibur in shul during time of tefilla and especially during time of keriat torah.
We all can do more tshuvah on respecting kedushat bet ha kenesset B”H”. Tanachumu meh ha shamayim.
16-18 Ditto. Of course you have to watch out for yourself, but you have to use your head… A tree could fall on someone even while inside a house. These two holy people can each say before the Kisei HaKavod, “I was returning from Shul!”.
Even with a tragic story like this, people have to argue with each other? And we wonder why Moshiach isn’t here yet. Let’s get along. Baruch Dayan HaEmes.
“The victim, Larry Krause,”. I thought there was more than 1 victim.
I think the real lesson we need to learn here is to get our facts straight before posting a report with FALSE information in it.
The men were not coming from Bnai Yeshurun, but were leaving the Sephardic Congregation of Teaneck and that is where the guy was president. Not Bnai Yeshurun.
Hopefully no one panicked because you posted factually incorrect information before you knew the entire story.
Way to go. Good job reporting… NOT!
Matok:
Fantastic advice. I’m one of the only people in my shul who don’t talk during chazaras hashatz kadish and leining and people look at me like I’m crazy when they talk to me and I don’t talk back and start motioning. People have FORGOTTEN that it is ASSUR to talk during those times.
Daniel Breslauer gives an eitza tova and everyone jumps down his throat; give a guy a break. Coming home fom shul was very frightning last night and I tried to avoid older trees with huge limbs. And it’s not as rare as getting hit by lightning.
From -Manhattan Sephardic Congregation.:
We regret to inform you of the untimely passing of one of our dear past members, Mr. Larry Krause (Eliezer Mordechai ben Avraham Shalom Halevi) z”l. He, and another member of the Teaneck community, were killed during the Nightmarish Nor’easter that swept across the Tri-state over Shabbat. Wind gusts toppled a large oak tree, which struck and killed them as they were returning from Synagogue Motzei Shabbat.
The funeral ceremony will take place at Darkei Avoseinu, 630 Avenue S, (corner of East 7th), Brooklyn NY 11223, tomorrow (Monday March 15) at 11 AM…. See More
The interment will take place at New Montefiore Cemetery following the ceremony. See below map and directions below.
Shiva will be observed at the Krause home, 622 Winthrop Rd, Teaneck NJ. Prayer times have not yet been confirmed.
May the family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Yerushalayim.
cherrybim,
1)it might’ve been difficult, but this way you get schar halicha.
2) If you can show me where you saw that more people get hit by falling trees than lightning, I would appreciate it.
First, you must always use common sense in any situation whether it be nasty weather or other factors. And even then you can’t always anticipate the unusual. I had a relative killed by a speeding car while he was walking back from shul right across the street from his house.
What are we as the congregation of Bnai Yisroel to do after such an unusual tragedy? I was told by Holocaust survivor that before WWII it seemed like there were many funerals of tzadikim. Perhaps they were korbanos, perhaps they were being spared the horrors that followed. We cannot discern Hashem’s cheshbon. We need to look inward. Have we lost these men in a manner clearly Min-Hashayim for our failings? What must we do to comply with the Torah? Not just so tragedies as this are not visited upon us further, but because we as individuals and a community are living by the Torah.
To reduce these risks, hire a reliable tree service to remove trees at risk.
Smartaleck,
(coudnt have picked a better psuedonym)
Did you ever hear of ‘Ushmartem es Nafshosechem’?
One can daven at home with the same Kavonoh if the situation outdoors happen to be treachorous.
And btw, you CAN beat the Malach Hamoves, with zechusim and mitzvohs(not that Chas Visholom these two were not worthy). But I know so many people who have been with one foot out the door and are now still with us BH.
The classic example is ‘Tzedokoh Tazil Mimoves’
I AGREE with Mr. Breslauer.
I did not go outside in this weather because the danger to myself outweighed my need to physically attend a minyan. I can daven on my own and my kavanah is heard by Hashem nomatter what my location is.
I feel horrible and saddened by the loss of two respected individuals and their passings should be remembered forever.
No person here has a right to dismiss the comment of another user. Mr. Breslauer, I stand by your comment.
Chushuva yid – “If you can show me where you saw that more people get hit by falling trees than lightning, I would appreciate it.”
Star-Ledger – March 14, 2010:
“Trees falling kill more people in New Jersey than lightning strikes or floods,” said David Robinson, state climatologist at Rutgers.
“People shouldn’t have been out on the roads today from noon to midnight, or out walking. People have to know how dangerous it is. We live in a state with a lot of trees.”
Chushuva yid – “it might’ve been difficult, but this way you get schar halicha.”
As Nameless said, “V’nishmartem M’od L’nafshosechem”, putting yourself in harm’s way may preclude the mitzva of minyan b’tzibor just as one does not receive schar for being in a Succah during a heavy rain.
I hope all you guys live on the same block as your shul. Crossing the street is a very dangerous sitaution. Imagine having to make thre round trips every Shabbos. OTOH< I guess you can skip minyan every Shabbos and stay nice and afe at home where The Malach Hamovess can't find you.
Please note that both Larry and Ovadia lived directly across the street from the Shul and had to walk no more than 100 feet to go to and from their houses to the shul. The tree that fell was right in front of Larry’s house.
Even had people been aware of the storm emergency, which due to Shabbat most of us were not, most people would have still felt safe going to a minyan only 2 houses away. Trees did not start falling over in Teaneck until about 6PM on Saturday, so most people were already in Shul by the time it became apparent how bad the storm was.
I have never posted on this site, but after reading these posts I felt compelled to do so. I cannot imagine the suffering that the families of these two men are feeling right now, but I know for sure that this is not what they need to be reading. After suffering such a tragedy, I’m sure that they do not want to read other people’s opinions about going to shul during the storm or other such comments as some posters feel the need to discuss. This is not the appropriate forum. The only posts on an article like this should be words of nechama or information about shiva and learning for an aliyah of these neshamos. Hamakom yinachem aschem bsoch avlei tziyon virushalayim.
MeiraI – What you are advising would be smart but for one, aveilim are not reading YWN, and if these warnings from readers might save one life…it’s all worth it.
A few months after my father passed away I went online and “googled” his name- I just wanted to read or see something about him because I missed him. I know that aveilim are not reading YWN this week, but maybe they will in a few weeks, months, etc. I will work on my dan l’chaf zechus as per your suggestion that people are posting to help others.
MeiraI you are very perceptive and correct with your comments. As My children and I struggle with this tragedy other peoples comments are extremely disturbing and hurtful. Here is what I can tell you about my beloved husband Ovadia. He never said an unkind word about anyone, he never judged people, he was happy and felt blessed everyday, and he was kind to everyone he met. He was a true “Tsadik”. I was a very lucky woman to have had such an amazing, loving husband and father. I hope my husbands wonderful traits teach each of us to look at ourselves more closely.