House fire in I.V. displaces 6

Flames caused heavy damage to a large two-story home in Isla Vista yesterday, displacing a family of six, fire officials said.

Emergency calls came in at approximately 11:58 a.m. and fire crews arrived on the scene four minutes later, County Fire Capt. Eli Iskow said. Smoke and flames were pouring from the windows and deck of the single-family home at 779 Camino Pescadero.

“Firefighters advanced hoselines inside the structure and knocked down the fires on both floors while searching for any trapped victims,” Iskow said in a news release. “Six occupants had gotten out of the house before firefighters arrived.”

Fire crews had the fire under control within 21 minutes, containing it to two bedrooms and an outside deck. However, smoke caused extensive damage throughout the 5,000-plus square-foot building, Iskow said.

Total damage is estimated at $100,000. A firefighter also suffered minor steam burns to his hand while fighting the blaze, Iskow said.

He said the mother of the family staying in the home heard a smoke alarm go off just as she began to smell smoke. After removing their four children from the home, the parents called 911.

“Because of information from the person reporting the fire to 911, during the initial dispatch of County Fire equipment there was mention that possibly a candle was involved in the start of the fire,” Iskow said. “That has not yet been confirmed and the cause and origin of the fire is currently under investigation.”

The family displaced by the blaze will be staying with family, authorities said. Iskow noted that a smoke alarm alerted the residents and urged all community members to frequently check that their alarms are functioning properly.

Fire Scorches I.V. Jewish Center

A fire torched parts of the UCSB Chabad House yesterday, leaving the rabbi’s residence with extensive damage.

According to Capt. Eli Iskow of the Santa Barbara Fire Dept., the fire began at noon in a bedroom at 779 Camino Pescadero - the new UCSB Chabad House, a local Orthodox Jewish religious center. Parts of the first and second floors were completely scorched by the flames.

“The mother started screaming, ‘the house is on fire!’ and everyone got out in a hurry,” Iskow said. “Smoke alarms had a great deal to do with them getting out in time.”

Iskow said the blaze caused major damage to the structure - one room was entirely charred and most of the possessions throughout the house were ruined by smoke.

Initial reports linked the blaze to a candle, Iskow said

Day Of Healing For Two South Florida Synagogues

See links at source for video.

I did not get a chance to watch, but it looks worth watching.


MIAMI BEACH (CBS4) ―

It was a day of healing and moving forward for two South Florida synagogues on Sunday; one was hit by hate and the other was damaged by fire.

A fundraiser was held at the Turnberry Jewish Center in Aventura to buy a new Torah for the Chabad Jewish Center of Miami Beach, which was damaged nearly two weeks ago in a fire. At the same time, the Torah, a religious scroll of Jewish laws and customs and a centerpiece of its religion, was taken.

"We have everyone joined together and give some donation towards it [Torah] and everyone is like joined in one Torah," said Rabii Zeb Kats of Habad Shul. "It's kind of like United Funds coming together and we are all going to have a community Torah, something that we did together."

At the Chabad of Parkland, located at 7170 Loxahatchee Rd., the Rabbi showed Hebrew school children the last of three swastikas and hateful words spray-painted on the synagogue's walls last week. Sunday, they painted over the hateful symbols.

"It's very important to show the children that not only is it relevant, not only is it something that still exists," said Rabbi Mendy Gutnick."It still exists in the world and we have to know how to deal with it, and how to overcome it."

Both of the cases are still under investigation to determine if they are hate crimes.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

FBI asked to probe area hate crimes

Insight as a service.

Silobreaker

Miami Chabad House Burned, Arson Suspected

“Fire destroyed our shul please help”

“Fire destroyed our shul please help” was the title of the email I received from my Rabbi in Miami, Rabbi Zeev Katz on Wednesday April 23. The desperate plea in his voice expresses how many of us, congregants of Chabad on Wheels in Miami Beach, feel today. I found out yesterday afternoon that my Jewish home and sanctuary for over two years, a place that had been integral to the development of my Jewish identity, had been devastated and its interior destroyed by an overnight fire. The fire is believed to have started around 2 am and cleared at around 7 am Tuesday morning, and the area is now under complete investigation as a potential arson / act of anti-Semitism. See below article about the incident for more info and a video at the scene.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/506012.html

Below is the Chabad website with images of the destruction and information on how to donate:

http://www.chabadonwheels.com/

I spoke to the Rebbetzin, Rabbi Katz’s wife on the phone today and she told me that when the janitor of the synagogue first called them on Tuesday morning to tell them their synagogue had burned down, they thought it must be a joke. The Rabbi and his wife ran over to the synagogue, which had already been classified by the fire department as an accidental fire set off by lit candles inside the building. The Rabbi and Rebbitzen did not believe that was possible, and upon seeing littered pieces of Torah, prayer books and shawls that appeared intentionally destroyed, the police, CSI, and fire department returned and cordoned off the area as a probable crime scene. Besides some ripped remnants, the Torah is completely missing. The Rebbetzin says that the outpouring of support from community churches, synagogues, and citizens has been overwhelming and that while they hope to discover who and what was behind the fire, they are putting their focus on rebuilding the Chabad on Wheels.

Rabbi Katz originally began his Chabad several years ago using an RV called the “Mitzvah Mobile”, which he would drive to businesses, people’s homes, or park out by the pedestrian Lincoln Road to infuse a little Judaism in people’s lives. He used his RV, or Chabad on Wheels, to engage Miami Beach tourists and locals in putting on Tefillin and handing out holiday necessities such as Chanukah candles, maintaining the practice even upon founding the actual Chabad house. Rabbi Katz has touched the lives of hundreds of Jews worldwide, giving Miami tourists a temporary Jewish home and the Miami community a dedicated Shaliach to help add just a little more Yiddishkite into their lives.

I am completely shocked and saddened by this horrible event. Before moving to San Francisco in October, I had spent two years living a short walk from Chabad on Wheels in Miami Beach, and Rabbi Katz’s community was a large foundation of my Miami experience. I first went to Chabad for Yom Kippur services in October 2005 and was attracted to the humble sense of community and openness that I found. By January 2006, I was a regular at Shabbat services, which ranged from 15 people, just barely enough for a minyan on some evenings, to 70 – 80 for a big well-advertised Shabbat. I grew with Chabad, seeing the synagogue develop from only having Friday night services every other week to a full Friday and Saturday morning service offering.

A random assortment of recent transplants in their early 20s, along with occasional families, black hatters, non-religious senior citizens, and interested tourists made up the regular diverse mix of Chabad. Within the oddball assortment of Chabadniks, I made some of my best friends in the world, and in a place far from our own families; we became brothers and sisters to each other. Chabad on Wheels was a real community; we would all help out in the kitchen, preparing Shabbat lunches, decorate our synagogue together on holidays, have Shabbat dinner at our own homes and at the Rabbi’s home, celebrate birthdays together at Chabad, and talk to the Rabbi or the Rebbetzin about our every day life and challenges. Rabbi Katz put up the mezuzot in my apartment for me, guided my roommate and me in cleaning our house for Pesach, and just a year ago, I celebrated Pesach with Chabad. We had barbeques on Yom Tov, ate together in our Chabad sukkah and my close-knit Chabad “posse” of friends took road trips, went out on Saturday nights, and put on meals and parties together for every Jewish and secular occasion. My friends Joe and Ilana met a Chabad, announced their engagement on Shabbat, and we all went up to their Rabbi-Katz led wedding in New York. The posse Chabad girls again reunited in Israel this January for our friend Rachael’s wedding, and we held up a sign to make the bride laugh: “The posse formed at Chabad on Wheels.” These girls were the ones who inspired me to consistently push my spirituality and grow as a Jew, supported me in starting to keep kosher, and formed my Jewish home and family in Miami.

One of the most important days at Chabad was when we dedicated our Torah, which was a huge festivity symbolizing how important it was for our community to finally have its own sacred scroll. This Torah is now missing, with some parts desecrated by the fire. For someone who was intimately involve with Chabad on Wheels, what happened on April 22 causes real pain – that our synagogue was destroyed along with the objects most familiar and sacred to us.

Being 3,000 miles away now, I feel very removed from what is happening on the ground, and only through conversations with community members and the online images, can I try to understand. When I first saw the pictures, I had a horrible feeling in my stomach, like I was seeing destruction from Crystalnacht, and it is surreal to think that this is not 70 years ago in Germany – this is now and this is my synagogue. We do not know what happened and maybe never will, but this incident should serve as a reminder that we cannot take Judaism and our religious freedom for granted. I hope that Chabad on Wheels rebuilds with strength and dignity and continues its mission of making Judaism accessible and beautiful to the Miami community. I thank Rabbi Katz and the Chabad community for everything they do, and my heart is with them in this painful experience.

Please help to assist Chabad on Wheels in rebuilding:

You can send checks to:

Chabad Fire Fund Att Rabbi Zev Katz
PO Box 2591
Miami Beach, FL 33140

Or go to: http://www.chabadonwheels.com/ and click on the link to donate.

Camp offers shelter, peace amid fire chaos

Refusing to leave his retreat, rabbi devotes himself to serving crews battling the Slide blaze.

By Ashley Powers, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer October 29, 2007

The pairing of the rabbi and the firefighters was a natural one.He had beds. They had been sleeping on asphalt. He had food and showers. They were grateful.

Rabbi Yosef Brod should have rushed down the mountain a week ago, when the Slide fire was burning toward Camp Gan Israel, the 75-acre Jewish camp he runs in the San Bernardino Mountains. The fire charred nearly 13,000 acres and wiped out 201 homes as it spread.But Brod, a rabbi with the Chasidic Lubovitch, or Chabad, sect, stayed. "Have a nice day," he told his employees as they evacuated. "Drive carefully."Over the weekend, about a dozen fire engines were parked by the giant Hanukkah candelabra at the camp. One firefighter chatted on a cellphone while another shivered in his boxers. A third asked Brod what the symbols on the cabin doors meant -- they were prayer scrolls called mezuzot that are meant to keep their occupants safe.State prison officials also came by, looking to house inmate mop-up crews in the camp's bunks.Brod says he kept the camp open because he believed that God would shelter the pine-shaded site, which the Chabad organization bought for summer and winter camps and weekend retreats. So Brod called his wife after the evacuations were ordered last Monday and said he wouldn't be driving home to West Hollywood."She knew I'm so devoted to this place I wouldn't leave," he said. One of his employees stayed, too, and told Brod that, if need be, he would carry the camp director down the mountain.By midweek, flames were licking the camp's northern edge, and a firefighting helicopter tapped the camp's pool for water. Brod ran a hose from a fire hydrant to the pool to keep it full.He already prays three times a day, but that afternoon, "We prayed with a little more intensity," Brod said.The blaze halted about 100 yards from the camp's wood-shingle main lodge and spared the property's cellphone towers, basketball court and 16 other buildings.The blaze had pushed a clutch of soot-dusted firefighters onto the narrow road that curves into the camp. Brod fed them. He offered mattresses and soap.Down the road from the camp, firefighters had been dozing in pop-up tents, on cots and huddled between engines in a parking lot of the Snow Valley Mountain Resort in Running Springs, where the command center had been set up.The news of better digs spread quickly.So many firefighters streamed into Camp Gan Israel that Brod called other rabbis for help.He found one fire crew sleeping on the grass just outside of camp, and offered them real beds."That's kind of a big deal, to have a bunch of sweaty firemen stomping through your place," said Ontario Fire Capt. Art Andres. "And this is a place where people pay good money to find rest or peace or something."A compact man with black-rimmed glasses, a salt-and-pepper beard and a black yarmulke, Brod held a prayer service for a Jewish firefighter.On Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, Brod couldn't work until after sunset. So firefighters signed themselves in, writing on a yellow legal pad that they had come from departments in Chino, Upland, Rancho Cucamonga, Tuolumne and other places. They ate a traditional stew that had been prepared before sunset the night before, when the Sabbath began.As the men and women ate each night, Brod shared his interpretation of the week's events. "One match destroys a thousand homes just like that," he told firefighters. "If we have the power to destroy the world, we have the power to make it better."The firefighters sat in quiet with their thoughts.Brod slouched on a folding chair in the camp's restaurant-size kitchen as he recounted the week's events. A button had popped open on his shirt, but he didn't notice.His two cellphones interrupted. A friend in Maryland was checking to see if he was OK. The other caller offered to bring oranges and coffee. Meanwhile, firefighters played billiards and table tennis.After dinner, Brod went outside and climbed into his white Ford Expedition to check on his guests. He darted past cabins with nearly all the windows lighted, and slowed only to chat with firefighters. Their eyes were weary and their voices hoarse."So you own this whole place?" croaked one firefighter."God owns the world," the rabbi replied.

Scenes From an Inferno

Another story also caught my interest, this time from The Los Angeles Times:
The pairing of the rabbi and the firefighters was a natural one.He had beds. They had been sleeping on asphalt. He had food and showers. They were grateful. Rabbi Yosef Brod should have rushed down the mountain a week ago, when the Slide fire was burning toward Camp Gan Israel, the 75-acre Jewish camp he runs in the San Bernardino Mountains. The fire charred nearly 13,000 acres and wiped out 201 homes as it spread.But Brod, a rabbi with the Chasidic Lubovitch, or Chabad, sect, stayed. "Have a nice day," he told his employees as they evacuated. "Drive carefully."Over the weekend, about a dozen fire engines were parked by the giant Hanukkah candelabra at the camp. One firefighter chatted on a cellphone while another shivered in his boxers. A third asked Brod what the symbols on the cabin doors meant -- they were prayer scrolls called mezuzot that are meant to keep their occupants safe.State prison officials also came by, looking to house inmate mop-up crews in the camp's bunks.Brod says he kept the camp open because he believed that God would shelter the pine-shaded site, which the Chabad organization bought for summer and winter camps and weekend retreats. So Brod called his wife after the evacuations were ordered last Monday and said he wouldn't be driving home to West Hollywood.The rest of the story describes how Rabbi Brod provided food and shelter to firefighters, few of them presumably Jewish, while they tried to get the flames under control. Chabad is an organization of rigorously orthodox Jews, devoted in part to getting wayward non-Orthodox Jews to observe the many demands of the orthodox version of the faith. Yet he feels not just comfortable but obligated to help out the fellow members of his American family in their hour of need.From where I sit very far away this is an extraordinary scene. It is almost impossible to imagine a Lubavitch Rabbi so truly incorporated into the society around him if the society is in Western Europe, or Russia, or elsewhere with a significant Orthodox Jewish community and a significant history of dark anti-Semitism. He is integrated but not assimilated, free to observe his demanding faith while helping out those who have completely different traditions. And they in turn are glad to take, driven by curiosity about his practices rather than resentment or conspiracist suspicion, accepting as normal that this exotic man is truly one of them – as American as they are, even if some of his habits are a little unusual. The episode is in some ways so ordinary, yet so revealing if you read between the lines.This is an amazing country, despite the best efforts of our government and intellectuals. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise.

Faith community reaches out to fire victims

A Chabad synagogue near the fire line in northern San Diego County saw its rabbi commandeer a lunch truck from Los Angeles to feed the stadium masses. “All kosher, for Jews and non-Jews!” said Rabbi Levi Raskin of Chabad Rancho Santa Fe, which so far has escaped the fires.

FAITH-BASED RESPONSES

FAITH-BASED RESPONSES

Chabad House, at 6115 Montezuma Road near San Diego State University is offering emergency shelter.

Ukranian president, Jewish leaders to meet

Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko will meet local Jewish leaders to discuss recent anti-Semitic attacks.

Yuschenko on Monday also will meet with representatives of the Ukrainian community and law enforcement generals about a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in Ukraine and the lackluster reaction by law enforcement agencies. There have no been no arrests or successful prosecutions, a member of Yuschenko's administration told JTA.

Yuschenko is expected to make a statement about combating the rise of ethnic hatred and anti-Semitic attacks in his country.

In late September three separate attacks on observant Jews took place in Zhitomir, Sevastopol and Cherkassy. On Oct. 5, the Chabad house in the city of Uzhgorod was set ablaze and robbed.

Torah scrolls evacuated as fire threatens Chabad of Malibu

A wildfire fueled by 50 mph Santa Ana winds and rising temperatures burned about 1,000 acres in the Malibu Hills area on Sunday, claiming several area businesses and landmarks, including Castle Kashan and Malibu Presbyterian Church, as well as threatening Pepperdine University.

Area homeowners were under mandatory evacuation, and Chabad of Malibu at 22933 Pacific Coast Highway removed its four Torah scrolls as shifting winds caused the fast-moving fire to crisscross a ridgeline above the synagogue in Sweetwater Canyon.

Fire officials put the start of the Canyon Fire started at 4:55 a.m., but several residents say they smelled smoke a few hours earlier. Three homes, the church and three business at Malibu Colony Shopping Center were destroyed, according to Los Angeles Fire Department officials.

Other areas reporting fires Sunday include Porter Ranch, Chatsworth, Santa Rosa Valley, Placerita Canyon, Castaic and Fontana. The National Weather Service has issued red-flag warnings for Los Angeles and Ventura counties until 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The fire in the canyon above Chabad of Malibu had yet to be contained as of Sunday afternoon. Strong winds destroyed a Chabad of Malibu sign, but no other harm had come to the synagogue or its adjacent kosher restaurant, recently renamed B.B.C. By the Sea (at left in photo.)

Rabbi Levi Cunin, spiritual leader of Chabad of Malibu, said he smelled smoke and called the fire department shortly after 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

"The first thing I did was get my wife and kids out," said Cunin, 36. "A lot of our people who come to Chabad -- many of them live in the area -- and they had to evacuate."

In addition to assisting congregants and neighbors, Cunin also ensured that Chabad of Malibu's four Torahs were safe; each was strapped into the backseat of his sedan.

"Living here in Malibu, knowing how quickly fires [can spread], it's better to be safe than sorry," he said. "We took out the Torah, the chumashim, the siddurs, we took them all out."

Just north of Pepperdine, the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue was abandoned save for a few residents watching the fire from the shul's parking lot.

Dawn Cunnion, who has lived at Malibu Country Estates for about 10 years, was evacuated at 6:30 a.m. Her home was visible from the parking lot.

"We're keeping an eye on it. We found a shady place ... where we could get out quickly. From this vantage point at least we've got a perspective as to what's going on," she said.

Cunnion said she's been through several fires, but this is her first mandatory evacuation.

"The one across the street ... was pretty scary too," she said, referring to a fire in January that destroyed four homes, including one that belonged to Suzanne Somers. "We had winds, but not these kinds of winds."

Residents have been evacuated to Zuma Beach and Agoura Hills High School.

As at Malibu Jewish Center was Michael Brown, 46, who found himself trapped in Malibu when MTA cancelled Line 534, which serves Pacific Coast Highway. The Los Angeles resident had spent the weekend at a campground across the street from the Reconstructionist congregation adjacent to the Pepperdine campus.

"They shut down the buses, and I needed some water ... so I seen the synagogue. I thought, well I'll get some water, charge up my laptop and be stranded at the beach," said Brown, who took shelter from the wind outside the locked sanctuary as he used an outlet for his computer.

About 15 miles north of Pepperdine at Camp JCA Shalom, religious educator Casey Krebs said there are no plans to evacuate.

"They said if we want, we could get things ready," she said. "We're just waiting and seeing what's happening. We smelled the smoke a lot last night, but we don't really smell it today."