Families of Israeli Fire Victims Receive Aid and Compassion

 
A delegation from the Chabad Terror Victims Project meets with the family of Jalal Bissan, who perished in Israel’s Carmel Fire.

By Joshua Runyan 

Dec 23, 2010 11:40 AM

In the wake of Israel’s worst natural disaster in modern history, a Chabad-Lubavitch organization is providing badly-needed financial aid to the 43 families whose loved ones perished in the flames.

According to Rabbi Yossi Swerdlov, program director of the Chabad Terror Victims Project, donors have underwritten an effort to provide 3,600 shekel grants to families of those killed in the Carmel Fire. The multiday blaze torched much of the Carmel Forest in Israel’s north, sending thousands of people fleeing for the country’s interior and touching off a national sense of mourning after a bus of prisons service staff was engulfed in fast-moving flames.

“Our volunteers have gone to spend time with them, bringing love and comfort, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen, and practical help to get them through the days,” reported Swerdlov. “Since so many of those killed were the breadwinners in the family, each family has received a special financial aid allotment to cover food, rent, clothing and other essentials.”

Among those receiving assistance are the many Druze families touched by the tragedy. Rabbi Yosef Aharonov, director of the Lubavitch Youth Organization in Israel, told the Maariv daily newspaper that the fact that they weren’t Jewish didn’t matter.

“We’re providing special grants to all families whose loved ones perished in the fire, regardless of whether they are Jewish or not,” explained Aharonov. “Everyone died together and the pain of their families is the pain of all of us.”

Sara Netanyahu, wife of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the family of fallen prisons service worker Jalal Bissan shortly after a delegation from the Chabad Terror Victims Project handed Bissan’s loved ones their grant.

Sumer Bissan, the man’s brother, told Netanyahu that he was deeply touched by the outpouring of support.

“It demonstrates that people care in this country,” he said, according to Yediot Aharanot. “They didn’t have to do it, but they did.”