Mourners attend the funeral for seven children killed in a Brooklyn fire in New York on March 22, 2015. The funeral of seven Orthodox Jewish children who perished in one of New York’s deadliest fires in years drew a sea of mourners on Sunday to a Brooklyn neighborhood where the blaze has raised concerns about the safety of Sabbath cooking practices. Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
*Editors: This photo may only be republished with RNS-ORTHODOX-FIRE, originally transmitted on March 23, 2015.
(RNS) The bodies of seven children from an Orthodox Jewish family who died in a fire in their home in Brooklyn have arrived in Israel for burial, Israeli network Arutz Sheva and The Associated Press reported Monday (March 23).
Funeral services for the four boys and three girls of the Sassoon family, ages 5 to 16, were held in Brooklyn on Sunday (March 22), before their bodies were flown to Israel.
The family lived in Jerusalem, where the children are to be buried, before moving to the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn two years ago. A friend said the family had planned to return to Israel to live.
Authorities identified the victims as girls Eliane, 16; Rivkah, 11; and Sara, 6; and boys David, 12; Yeshua, 10; Moshe, 8; and Yaakob, 5. All were found in upstairs bedrooms of the two-story, brick-and-wood, single-family home after the blaze — the city’s deadliest fire since 2007 — was reported early Saturday (March 21).
Their 45-year-old mother, Gayle, a Brooklyn native, and 14-year-old sister, Tzipara, who jumped from a second-story window, remained in critical condition.
Fire officials believe the blaze was started by a malfunctioning hot plate being used to keep food warm during the 25-hour Sabbath, when religious restrictions forbid cooking. The house had only one smoke detector, in the basement.
Their father, Gabi, was at a religious conference in Manhattan at the time and did not learn of the tragedy for several hours because of the Orthodox prohibition on electronic communications. “What will happen to us now? Where will I go?” he told Arutz Sheva on Sunday.
(Jane Onyanga-Omara and Michael Winter write for USA Today.)