NY Daily News – March 23, 2015
by Reuven Blau, Stephen Rex Brown, Laura Bult
A heartbroken father sought solace in his Jewish faith Sunday as he mourned the loss of seven of his children in a Brooklyn blaze.
Friends and relatives joined devastated dad Gabriel Sassoon at Shomrei Hadas Chapel in Borough Park for the funeral of the kids aged 5 to 16.
“My children, they were so pure,” Sassoon said.
“They all had faces of angels. Hashem (God) knows how much I loved them.”
Many of the hundreds of Orthodox Jewish mourners dressed in black wept in the street as they listened to the father’s eulogy broadcast over a loudspeaker.
Sassoon spoke of faith, surrendering to God, and loving children above all else. The pious dad was composed, but he paused periodically to cry.
“I want to ask my children’s forgiveness. I did my best and my wife did her best. Please, everybody, love your child, love your children, love others’ children. That’s all that counts. Understand them, don’t negate them,” he said.
“My children were unbelievable. They were the best. But the truth is every child is the best, every child is the most beautiful child in the world. We have to love them as parents and we have to love them as teachers.”
After the ceremony, the gender-segregated crowd accompanied the extended Sassoon family in a short procession down 14th Ave.
The seven bodies are being flown to Israel for burial in Har HaMenuchot cemetery in Jerusalem.
The funeral, attended by numerous elected officials, took place 3 miles from the Sassoons’ two-story home, on Bedford Ave. in Midwood, that erupted in flames early Saturday because of an untended hot plate keeping food warm. Hot plates are a common way Orthodox Jews avoid using the stove on the Sabbath.
Astonishingly, the tragedy was almost avoided. The parents and their eight kids had planned to travel to Deal, N.J., for the weekly day of rest, but they canceled the trip because of bad weather.
On the other hand, a close family friend said his 16-year-old daughter would have also been present at the time of the fire if that family had kept to its earlier plans to return to the city from Israel on Friday rather than returning two days later on Sunday.
“I spoke to them on the phone a few days ago and the last thing I said was ‘we’ll see you soon,'” said the family friend, who asked not to be identified. “Those kids were gems. They were so good, all honors students.”
Other area residents also expressed their shock over the tragic incident.
“It’s unbelievable,” said City Councilman Dov Hikind, who often acts as a spokesman for Brooklyn’s Orthodox community in times of tragedy.
“Neighbors were telling me the kids were playing in the snow before Shabbos. Boy, in just one moment, it all just disappears.”
The victims were between 5 and 16 years old. The boys were identified as Yaakob, 5; Moshe, 8; Yeshua, 10, and David, 12. The sisters were identified as Sara, 6; Rivkah, 11, and Eliane, 16.
The medical examiner said they died of smoke inhalation.
The mother, Gayle Sassoon, 45, escaped the blaze by jumping from a second-story window along with a 15-year-old daughter, Siporah.
Gayle Sassoon was placed in a medically induced coma at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx and is unaware of her family’s tragic fate, Hikind said.
Siporah remained in critical condition at Staten Island University Hospital North.
The dad, who was at a Manhattan religious retreat when the fire broke out, had loving words for each of his children, which he shared through tears.
“Eliane, when she was born, already she came out fighting. A spirited child, always going to the maximum. She was so much fun and spirited,” he said of his eldest child.
“Yaakob, also, just wanted everyone to be happy. He was the youngest, he was the clown,” he said.
The father’s remarks had a profound effect.
“He’s standing there next to seven caskets. To be able to give strength and faith in God to everyone else — it was just amazing,” Hikind said. “It just blew everyone away…He was talking about people getting along and not getting caught up with petty things. We are all in shock in our community.”
A 52-year-old woman who would only give her name as Yocheved agreed.
“It was great in its simplicity,” she said of the eulogy.
“I’m not surprised that a man who lost seven children reacted that way because the faith is so strong.”
Mayor de Blasio, who on Saturday visited the scorched site, said he had not determined if city regulations would be changed in an effort to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro “is really looking at this to see what it can teach us from now moving forward,” de Blasio said Sunday from Boston, where he’s attending a conference.
The fire was the deadliest in New York since 2007, when a Bronx blaze claimed nine immigrants from the African nation of Mali, including eight children.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined about 50 people Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil outside the family’s burned house.
“There is no greater loss, there’s no greater tragedy than when a parent buries a child. The Sassoons have to bury seven,” Schumer told the crowd. “The community will embrace the Sassoon family in this tragedy and for the rest of their lives.”
With María Villaseñor, Beverly Ford, Rikki Reyna
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