At the heartbreaking levayah Mrs. Adina Zehavi was brought to her final resting place after her children and relatives eulogized her, one after the other* Tears flowed like water as everyone envisioned the image of the heroic woman who sacrificed her body and gave up her life as she entered the flames to save her children- until the very last child

No eye remained dry at the vast levayah when Mrs. Adina Zehavi a”h was brought to rest. In the midst of the smoke and the flames which raged in her home, she paid with her life to rescue her children from the house-turned-inferno.

Adina a”h managed to save her children one after the other as she burst inside to pull out more and more children, went outside with them and then re-entered the flames. Breathing in only smoke and choking, she continued to save her eight children- the ninth was abroad at the time- until she succumbed to smoke inhalation after the last of her children was rescued.

At the anguished levayah, her children eulogized her one after the other; her brother, her husband, and additional acquaintances all recalled the noble image of the fallen heroine.

Her older brother eulogized her in English: “This is the first time I’m burying a family member,” he said. “Who’d have ever believed that the first time I’d participate in the funeral of a family member, it would be the funeral of my little sister, when she was only 41…”

For emergency aid to a family who lost their mother and their home click here>>>

Residents of Kochav Ya’akov, the yishuv where she lived, praised her to the skies. Her close friend Rachel Leff shared: “Adina was the friend whom everyone wanted. She always picked up on who needed help and helped them out without making an issue of it. She didn’t talk- she just got things done. Adina was by our side and by the side of the rest of our friends at happy times and at difficult times. She always noticed who needed more personal attention and didn’t give up on them. She worked with special needs students, formed really close connections with them, and brought them home with her for visits.”

Her husband Rabbi Aryeh sat and recalled the bravery of his wife, a true heroine who didn’t spare herself and didn’t think about the great danger she was putting herself in when over and over she entered the flames in order to save their children.

The yishuv requested from the crowd participating in the levayah and from whoever hears of this incident to open their hearts and assist this family, who are undergoing such trauma; the family members came to their mother’s levayah in clothes borrowed from the neighbors, since everything they owned was incinerated. They have literally nothing! They have absolutely no possessions except their burnt house, which will take a very long time to renovate so it will once again be habitable. And even then, they will need to furnish it anew and to buy appliances and other basic things that a house needs.

This, in addition to the terrible tragedy and the orphanhood which struck the children in one blow. There’s the need to extend them emotional and financial support, to help the father renovate his home and rehabilitate his family- all this costs an enormous amount, and he is unable to do it without assistance from the wider public.

This is the place to open one’s heart and contribute, to help rehabilitate the family and to help them grow up healthy physically, emotionally, and spiritually- as their mother who gave her life for them would have wanted.

For emergency aid to a family who lost their mother and their home, click here>>>