Fire Burns Cholon Yeshiva Dorm

By COLlive reporter

Heads of the Chabad Yeshiva in the central Israeli city of Cholon are searching for alternative accommodations for students after a fire broke out in the dormitory building.

At around 9:00 PM this past Monday, the kitchen in the dorm went up in flames. According to one account, two bochurim were making themselves dinner when the deep fryer became caught up in flames.

They tried to put out the fire but when the flames grew they called the fire department to the building that was especially built in 2008 and contains a dining room, 2 kitchens, 10 bedrooms and 5 restrooms, a small mikvah and laundry room.

Before evacuating the premises, the bochurim ran to alert their friends of the situation. They all managed to escape without harm and take with them the Torah scrolls that are used when they daven on Shabbos in the building.

The fire has damaged much of the building and one bochur told COLlive.com that the building might even be demolished. The students of the Yeshiva spent this past Shabbos in the village of Migdal.

The Yeshiva Gedola was founded in 2005 by Cholon’s Chief Rabbi Yochanan Gourarie for English and Yiddish speaking bochurim from the USA and other countries. The Rosh Yeshiva is Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Feldman.