(JNS) Thousands of people convened in the central Israeli city of Holon on Wednesday to attend the funeral of a Jewish mother and three children who were killed in a Brooklyn house fire this week.
Aliza Azan, 39, and three of her children—Moshe, 11, Yitzhak, 7, and Henrietta, 3—were killed in a fire caused by a Chanukah menorah. Their bodies were flown to Israel and they were laid to rest in Holon’s municipal cemetery.
The children’s father, Yossi Azan, and two of the couple’s children, Shilat, 16, and Daniel, 15, were hospitalized in New York and remain in critical condition.
Both parents were born and raised in Israel. Special arrangements were made by Israel’s Religious Services Minister David Azoulay to ensure that the victims could be buried in Holon.
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef both attended the funeral.