Bodies of 7 siblings, ages 5 to 16, killed in Brooklyn fire being laid to rest in Israel

JERUSALEM — Seven Jewish siblings who were killed in a devastating New York house fire over the weekend were being laid to rest Monday after being flown to Israel for burial.

Dozens of mourners, including the chief rabbi of Israel, attended the emotional service, which was repeatedly interrupted by anguished cries.

“Why seven?” Seven beautiful lilies,” their father, Gabriel Sasson, cried out during a eulogy. “So pure. So pure.”

A house is closed off after a overnight fire occurred on Saturday, March 21, 2015, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The fire raged through the residence early Saturday, killing seven children and leaving two other people in critical condition, authorities said. []

The bodies of the Sassoon siblings, ages 5 to 16, were flown to Israel overnight from New York and whisked away to Jerusalem in a convoy escorted by police.

The bodies, wrapped in shrouds, were displayed on stretchers for a memorial service in a room crowded with dozens of mourners. After the service, they were to be buried at Jerusalem’s main cemetery.

David Lau, Israel’s chief rabbi for Ashkenazi — or European — Jews, described the fire as an unspeakable tragedy and urged the family to remain strong. “Each one is a flower in God’s garden,” he said.

The fire has shattered the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in the Midwood neighbourhood of Brooklyn. Investigators believe it was caused when a hot plate, left on for the Jewish Sabbath, malfunctioned, setting off flames that incinerated the stairs of their home, trapping the children in their second-floor bedrooms as they slept.

The blaze killed three girls and four boys. Both the mother and a daughter — Gayle Sassoon and 14-year-old Siporah Sassoon — remain in critical condition.

Chief of Department James Leonard leaves the scene of a house fire in Brooklyn. [ (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)]

The tragedy had some reconsidering the practice of keeping hot plates on for the Sabbath, a common modern method of obeying tradition prohibiting the use of fire on the holy day.

Israeli media have said the family lived in Jerusalem before moving to New York two years ago.

Alon Edri, who identified himself as a rabbi and relative of the family, said it was significant for the religious family to be buried in the Holy Land.

“We believe that being buried in Israel is important because all of your sins are then absolved,” he said.

Neighborhood children look on near the scene of a fire in Brooklyn that killed 7. [ (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)]

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