Orthodox Jews pray for miracles after building's collapse

Numerous members of an Orthodox synagogue are among those missing after the collapse of a seaside condominium tower near Miami

Building Collapse Miami (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Numerous members of an Orthodox synagogue are among those missing after the collapse of a seaside condominium tower near Miami

Rabbi Sholom D. Lipskar, the founder of the Shul of Bal Harbour, said that his community is praying for miracles as rescue teams on Friday continued to search for survivors among the rubble of the 12-story Champlain Towers South in Surfside.

“It definitely needs miracles ... because the circumstances are very, very grim,” said Lipskar, who is a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary to the area.

Lipskar could not say exactly how many members of his congregation were missing. But he said that many members of Surfside’s Jewish community were unaccounted for.

“It’s a very large group of people, unfortunately,” he said. “From the synagogue, everybody knows somebody. It’s like one big community, so (there were) a lot of people that lived in that building.”

The Shul is located about 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) north of the building that collapsed early Thursday morning, killing at least four people. Officials said Friday that 159 people are still unaccounted for.

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Henao reported from New York City