The mayor of Surfside, Florida, described a chance meeting with a 12-year-old girl at the Champlain Towers South collapse site Sunday night that “hit me the hardest.” “Last night, when I did my late night pass at the building there was little girl. She’s about 12 years old and she was sitting by herself,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Monday. Burkett said he knew the little girl from a previous encounter and understood that either her mother or father was a victim of the Surfside collapse. Burkett said he found her sitting near the rubble pile scrolling through prayers on her cell phone “all by herself.” “She was reading a Jewish prayer to herself, sitting at the site, by where one of her parents presumably is,” the mayor said. “And that broke my heart.

Nina Le Troadec, a 15-year-old resident of Champlain Towers East, witnessed the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South from her bedroom window. Le Troadec said she and her family were “scared” that their building could collapse too and stayed in a hotel following the collapse. She described what she witnessed to CNN’s John Berman: (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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Israel’s Diaspora Minister Nachman Shai, who is in Surfside at the scene of the building collapse, told Israeli radio on Monday morning that there is “zero chance of finding anyone alive.” “I say with regret, the chances of finding survivors is zero,” Shai told Radio 103FM. “I was in the place, it doesn’t look like anyone could survive.” I am currently receiving a briefing of the situation on the ground, with Senators @SenRickScott & @SenReneGarcia, @RabbiLipskar of the Bal Harbour Shul, and other security officials. We are discussing how to best continue with search efforts and meet community needs. pic.twitter.com/QDxllwlV8x — נחמן שי- Nachman Shai (@DrNachmanShai) June 27, 2021 IDF Col.

In response to the tragic building collapse outside Miami and the uncertainty and fears surrounding this event, Project Chai, the Crisis Intervention, Trauma, and Bereavement Department of Chai Lifeline presents a webcast offering psychological and practical guidance on modeling healthy behavior for our children. The program features Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox, director of Project Chai, and Dr. David Pelcovitz, Gwendolyn and Joseph Straus Chair in Psychology and Jewish Education at Yeshiva University.

After the building collapse on early Thursday morning, Hatzalah South Florida has had a non-stop continuous 24 hour- a -day presence at the disaster site in Surfside, Florida. While rumors of a slowed rescue response have popped up on social media, Hatzalah South Florida Director Baruch Sandhaus wants the public and community to know that he has personally witnessed a non-stop multi-agency rescue effort since the disaster began, with enormous resources being brought in as the scene safely allows.

Miami-Dade County, Florida, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava confirmed that the death toll from the building collapse is currently nine people “As of today, one victim passed away in the hospital, and we’ve recovered eight more victims on-site, so I am confirming today that the death toll is at nine,” the mayor said. She said that they have identified four of the victims and notified the next of kin. “We are making every effort to identify those others who have been recovered, and additionally, contacting their family members as soon as we are able,” she said.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin landed at Newark International Airport on Sunday morning on a farewell visit to the US at the invitation of US President Joe Biden. Rivlin’s seven-year term ends in two weeks. The president was met at the airport by Israel’s Ambassador to the US and UN Gilad Erdan. The two will meet with senior Jewish community leaders in Manhattan on Sunday evening. Rivlin will travel to Washington on Monday and will meet with Biden in the Oval Office as well as with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders from both parties. On Tuesday Rivlin is scheduled to meet with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and several foreign ambassadors. Welcome to America @PresidentRuvi!

After an ugly anti-Semitic rant by Curtis Sliwa went viral, the Republican nominee for NYC Mayor made a video claiming he was not an anti-Semite. In his 2018 address to a Hudson Valley meeting for the Reform Party, Mr. Sliwa berated Hassidim, hurling age-old misrepresentations and distortions that those who hate Jews have used for centuries at contemporary Jewish residents of Hudson Valley counties, several of which have seen influxes of identifiable Orthodox Jews over recent years. Among much other ugliness, he expressed disdain for Jews who donate to political candidates.

Kll Yisroel has once again risen to the occasion, showing an outpouring of support for those affected by the condo collapse on Collins Avenue in Surfside, Florida. Despite the bleakness and everyone bracing for the worst, thousands of people have been donating all types of clothing, food, and other items for the hundreds of people displaced by the collapse. The Bal Harbour Shul has been turned into a command center of relief and Chesed. The attached video (posted below) speaks for itself, and doesn’t even show a small percentage of what is really going on. Meanwhile, a staggering $671,000 has so far been raised (as of Friday afternoon) through the Chesed Fund, to be distributed to the families of the victims and those needing emergency funds.

Agudath Israel of America, like all New Yorkers of good will, is outraged at current mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa’s recently publicized rant against Hassidic Jews. Our outrage is accompanied by great surprise, considering how Mr. Sliwa and the Guardian Angels group he founded have shown great concern for the safety of Jews. In his 2018 address to a Hudson Valley meeting for the Reform Party, Mr. Sliwa berated Hassidim, hurling age-old misrepresentations and distortions that those who hate Jews have used for centuries at contemporary Jewish residents of Hudson Valley counties, several of which have seen influxes of identifiable Orthodox Jews over recent years. Among much other ugliness, he expressed disdain for Jews who donate to political candidates.