Shliach Receives New Home

WSVN

A rabbi and his family received a generous gift after their home was destroyed by flames.

On Tuesday, a fire charred the home of Rabbi Rafi Rosenberg’s, near 20th Court and 18th Avenue. The blaze reportedly began because of a candle. Most of the family was inside the home at the time of the fire.

An anonymous donor offered a new home to the Rosenberg family until their home is fully repaired. “It’s beautiful, really beautiful,” Rosenberg said of the home.

The new home is also equipped with a Kosher-friendly kitchen for the family. “Small two bedroom, or something like that,” said Rosenberg. “We’d cramp in and camp out. My family, they’re sports. They can do that. But here, we’re going to live like it’s a home.”

Residents also donated clothing to Rosenberg’s eight children. Camila Landman was one of the donors. “People are trying to bring the best they can,” she said. “We’ve known them for so many years, and they’re so caring of us when we need them, so now, we need to support them when they need us.”

This is not the first time the rabbi has dealt with hardship. A few years ago, his temple was burned down. Rosenberg was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of others. “It’s huge what people have done for us,” he said. “I do my best to be generous and to help out, and I’ve really given my life to help other people, but this is just beyond anything I could expect.”

According to Rabbi Rosenberg, his wife and children are temporarily staying with relatives.

The Rosenberg family is scheduled to move into the new house next week.

Rosenberg said, he plans to rebuild his damaged home and hopes to move back into the home within the next few months.

An accidental fire, which started either electrically or by a candle, according to the fire department, reduced their home, located at 2045 NE 186 Drive in North Miami Beach, Florida, to ruins Sunday morning.

Rabbi Rafi Rosenberg described the scene when he first saw the flames. “Right here used to be my bed, my wife’s bed and a night table, and when I came in here, the night table– we both read a lot so we had a big stack of books– and the books were already on fire.”

The father was in the back room giving two of his kids a bath when the flames ignited. Three of his other children were also home when the fire ignited.

His 6-year-old daughter came running back to alert him about the fire. “I told my father, I said, ‘Papa, there’s a fire inside the house,'” said Devorah Rosenberg. “He was just trying to put the fire out with a blanket. Then my father told everybody to get out of the house.”

“My children right away, it’s the first thing that came to my mind. I ran to grab the two kids who were in the bath, wrapped them in towels right away, brought them outside, just left them in the front yard. There was a neighbor watching.”

His wife Hindi Rosenberg, who was teaching Hebrew school when the fire happened, said they were at first baffled about how the fire started. “We had no idea how it happened,” she said.

She also said it was a close call for the family. “My daughter was sleeping less than a foot away from that night table. Had she been sleeping for another 10 minutes, I mean, God knows what would have happened.”

This Rabbi oversees about 100 families at their synagogue in Skylake. Now they are the ones on the receiving end of the generosity of their community. “We’ve been getting calls off the hook saying, ‘How can we help, how can we help?’ and it’s just an incredible thing to be part of such a beautiful community.”

Rosenberg already knows the trauma of suffering a fire. His synagogue was nearly destroyed two years ago by flames. Now, he said, he will have to make plans to rebuild his own home.

To help go to www.skylakesynagogue.com