Rabbi Yona Lunger, a community activist in Miami told Arutz Sheva that many more Jews would have been lost if the building had collapsed in the winter or last year. “Most of the building’s apartments were owned by Jews,” Lunger said. “Most had mezuzos on the doors. But the fact that this disaster happened now, as well as during the summer, means that a far greater disaster was averted. If it had been a year ago this time, the building would have been filled with Jews from New York fleeing the coronavirus regulations, and if it had been last winter, there would have been hundreds of Jews in the building.” Rabbi Lunger stressed that everyone should use the utmost caution in publicizing names of people who are thought to be missing.

Families around the world remained stuck between waning hopes and widening fears Saturday, two days after the stunning collapse of a 12-story condominium near Miami. At least five people were killed and more than 150 people remained unaccounted for as rescuers continued to dig through the rubble of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside. The building was home to an international mix of foreign retirees, South American immigrants and Orthodox Jews, all with anxious loved ones across the globe. Here are the stories of some of the missing: TZVI AND INGRID “ITTY” AINSWORTH Tzvi and Ingrd “Itty” Ainsworth were celebrating the birth of two new grandchildren.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote to the UK’s US ambassador Karen Pierce on Wednesday requesting that the UK suspend all health decisions regarding two-year-old Alta Fixsler. Alta’s father, Avraham Fixler, is a US citizen and Schumer asked that the UK allow Alta to travel to the US with her father. “I urge that all health decisions that are against the wishes of the family be suspended until the citizenship process is complete and Alta can travel to the US with her US citizen father, Mr. Abraham Fixsler,” Schumer wrote. Both of Alta’s parents are Israeli citizens and senior Israel officials have engaged in numerous attempts to intervene in the tragic case, so far to no avail.

When an old high school friend lost a long battle with COVID-19, Jay Kleiman went back for the funeral from Puerto Rico to the condominium where he grew up north of Miami Beach. But hours before the ceremony, the high-rise building in the affluent neighborhood of Surfside collapsed, leaving more than 100 people missing overnight. Now Kleiman may himself be dead, along with his mother and brother staying at the apartment. “It is so tragic that he flew for a friend who died from COVID complications, and ended up there,” said Mark Baranek, who coached both Kleiman and his friend George Matz for a flag football team from their synagogue. Kleiman, 52, is part of a growing list of missing people along with his brother Frankie Kleiman, and his mother Nancy Kress Levin.

Rabbi Rafi Goodwin was evacuated to the hospital after being attacked outside his shul in Chigwell, a town northeast of London, on Sunday, Erev Shavuos. Goodwin, the assistant Rabbi at the Chigwell & Hainault United Synagogue, was attacked by two young thugs who ambushed his car and shouted anti-Semitic epithets, the police said. He suffered cuts to his head and a suspected concussion after being assaulted with an “unknown item.” His phone was also stolen during the attack. The two assailants, 18 and 25, were arrested by police on Sunday afternoon. “Please pray for my dear friend and colleague Rabbi Rafi Goodwin who has been brutally attacked this morning near to his synagogue in Chigwell,” tweeted Rabbi Moshe Freedman, the shul’s security officer.

Our Very First Bonei Olam-Vzakeini Baby! PIN # SMO332 הודו לה’ כי טוב! Just over a year ago, Vzakeini was established. $1 and 1 tefilah each week for 1 couple’s IVF treatment. Vzakeini promised miracles and over the last few months they also promised good news. Today, we finally say Mazal tov. Not just once, but twice. ​A couple who could not have had children without Bonei Olam’s help now hugs 2 little twin miracles in their arms. Mazal tov to the immediate family, and mazal tov to the entire Vzakeini family who gave life through their donations and tefilos. ​ ​A message from the mother: “Not so long ago, the ability to become a mother was so distant, I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to hold my own baby. Today, I need to keep reminding myself that they are mine!

Holocaust survivors experience lingering effects from the trauma they suffered in their younger years, increasing the chances of cancer and heart disease, according to a recently published Hebrew University study. The study examined the death records of 22,000 people who were followed from 1964 to 2016, comparing the death rates of Holocaust survivors from cancer and heart disease to non-survivors. Female Holocaust survivors had a 15% higher mortality rate and a 17% higher risk of death from cancer, the study showed. Interestingly, the study showed that the overall mortality rate of male Holocaust survivors wasn’t higher than non-survivors but they had a staggeringly 39% higher risk of dying from heart disease and a 14% higher risk of dying from cancer.

In a rare critique of the French justice system, French President Emanuel Macron said that “going crazy” due to taking drugs is not a valid excuse for a lack of criminal responsibility. “Deciding to take drugs and then ‘going crazy’ should, not in my view, take away your criminal responsibility,” Macron told the French daily Le Figaro in an interview published on Monday, AFP reported. “I would like Justice Minister [Eric Dupond-Moretti] to present a change in the law as soon as possible,” he added. France’s highest court ruled last week that the killer of Sarah Halimi cannot stand trial for her grisly murder because he was too high on marijuana to be criminally responsible for his actions.

Iran’s Quds Force deputy commander has died of a heart attack, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on Sunday. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Hosseinzadeh Hejazi, who died at 65, served as deputy commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The unit directs foreign terror groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and Hejazi frequently traveled between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Hejazi was one of the key planners of the 1994 bombing at the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in which 85 people were killed. In 2011, Hejazi’s name was added to the sanctions list of the Council of the European Union for his role in the crackdown protests following the 2009 win of former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

As news headlines report on the latest Israeli sabotage at Iran’s Natanz nuclear site, the Jews in Iran are battling a serious COVID wave along with the rest of the country. At least four Iranian Jews recently passed away of the coronavirus, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. The virus wave, Iran’s fourth, is especially severe in the cities of Tehran and Isfahan, both of which house Jewish kehillos. On the order of Chief Rabbi Rav Yehuda Gerami, the shuls in the cities are closed. Many young Iranian Jews have contracted the virus, with some of them becoming seriously ill and requiring respiratory assistance. A number of Jews are fighting for their lives in Iran’s overcrowded hospitals.