Chabad's Staten Island Israeli Center burned down on Shabbos. The Staten Island Advance reports:
Ice and snow were piling up outside as a barefoot Chaya Segal and her husband carried their four children and two Torahs from their burning home Saturday morning.
"We got out the kids and the Torahs," said Mrs. Segal, who with her husband, Rabbi Nachman Segal, opened the Chabad Israeli Center in New Springville in 2003.
The family lives upstairs in the Nome Avenue home. Sabbath services take place downstairs over the weekend.
Rabbi Segal awoke after 1 a.m. Saturday and smelled smoke. Waking his wife, he went to look for the source of the odor as she called 911.
When the rabbi opened the bathroom door, he saw flames coming from a heating vent. The couple roused their children, ages 7, 5, 2 and 11 months, and ran from the home.
Outside, neighbors who had spotted the flames had just begun to pound on their door.
"It was freezing outside. I didn't have shoes, my son didn't have shoes," Mrs. Segal said. "It was like we were frozen in place."
Damage was extensive in the home the family rents, Mrs. Segal said.…
[A]nyone who would like to help the family or synagogue can send contributions to the Chabad Israeli Center in care of Chabad Lubavitch of Staten Island, 289 Harold Street, Staten Island NY, 10314.