Thousands of people attended the funeral Wednesday in Holon Cemetery of four members of the Azan family who perished in a Brooklyn house fire Monday caused by a Hanukkah menorah.
The first funeral procession took place Monday in Brooklyn just hours after the deadly fire in the Flatbush neighborhood, with thousands of mourners from the city's Syrian Jewish community accompanying Aliza (Luza) and her three children—Moshe, Yitzhak and Henrietta—in their symbolic funeral that took place before they were flown to Israel to be buried.
The fire department released a statement late Monday saying fire marshals determined the blaze to be accidental, caused by an "unattended lit menorah."
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and the Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef were among the people in attendance. Many others traveled from the Syrian community in Holon to pay their final respects.
“When the Temple existed the public would bring sacrifices, but the public paid for these sacrifices and some were made for their people. For our sins, when there is no Temple, God takes pure souls as a public sacrifice,” Deri said at the funeral.
“Our enemies never stop wanting to destroy Israel and part of the protection is that God takes the righteous. There are no words that can console the family. God chose you to make a public sacrifice. We don’t understand the ways of the almighty.”
Aliza’s husband and father of the deceased children, Yossi Azan, remains in hospital in serious condition in New York. Aliza was 39 years old, while Henrietta, Moshe and Yitzhak were aged 3, 11 and 7 respectively,
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Henrietta (right), Yitzhak (bottom), Shilat (left), Aliza (second from top-left), Yossi (top-center), Shilat (left) and Daniel (top-right)
Two other children, Shilat, 16, and Daniel, 15, were also hospitalized in serious condition after the fire.
Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said that he knew the mother who “would bring in guests when I visited them in New York. We all need to do some soul searching … We don’t ask ‘why did God do this,’ because everyone goes to the next life. May God send a speedy recovery to all the wounded and may we see the speedy resurrection in our days.”
His brother, the former rabbi of Holon, Avraham Yosef, also spoke at the funeral. “Our pain is extreme. This is a precious family, loved and endowed with huge blessings,” he said, adding that their deeds saved many lives.
The Azan family's loss was not the first to strike the borough: less than three years ago a fire ravaged the home of the Sassoon family ,also Syrian Jews, claiming the lives of seven children. Monday's fire was no less devastating, claiming the life of Aliza, 39, and her three children: 11-year-old Moshe, 7-year-old Yitzah Hillel and 3-year-old Henrietta Leah.