Tuesday night June 23, 2010. Nachlat Har Chabad. Five-year old Leizer Galperin screamed and shrieked in agony and terrible fear from the flames surrounding him, as his mother stood near the entrance to the room that had turned into a fiery inferno. He cries out, and his mother began to sob bitterly. Leizer begged his mother to save him, but she couldn’t because of the fiery flames. Then, like an angel from Heaven, a young man arrives, and without even thinking, he jumps into the flames, pulls Leizerke out of the roaring fire, and then with great speed, he ran down into the street, stopped a passing vehicle, and “flew” with him to the Magen David Adom station. From there, the boy is transferred in very serious condition, fully conscious, to the Tel HaShomer Hospital, while the young man with self-sacrifice is sent to Kaplan Hospital in Rechovot.
Leizer’s small body was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, and the young boy was placed under anesthesia and on a respirator. The doctors made an appraisal regarding the continuing treatments. Without getting into details, Leizer’s medical condition remains extremely critical. He was unable to breath on his own, and complex medical treatments will continue for several months, to be followed by a lengthy period of rehabilitation.
The parents, Rabbi Shmuel and Mrs. Devora Galperin, are well known both in Kiryat Malachi’s Nachlat Har Chabad community and out, as cheerful and goodhearted chassidim who assist people in a variety of areas. Now, they will be forced to be away from home and work for several long months – remaining close to the bedside of their young son, who was miraculously saved from the fiery furnace. In addition, they will have to serve as a source of encouragement to their other children, who were terrified and alarmed to see their brother burned before their very eyes!
Both the fire itself and the rescue work by the local fire department caused very severe damage. Much property was destroyed in the fiery blaze, while the rest was wiped out by the fire hoses.
The medical expenses, the child’s rehabilitation, and the home repairs will cost a sizable amount of money, and all these expenses now fall on the shoulders of the family, who were already living with great difficulty in meeting their most basic payments. Therefore, at this distressing hour, as on previous occasions, Kiryat Malachi City Councilmen R’ Chaim Steiner and R’ Avraham Hershkop have accepted the mission to raise funds to cover the Galperin family’s expenses in light of this terrible event.
They will be joined by family friend and community representative R’ Dovber Kenig. Together, they have initiated a committee to rescue this family, under the auspices of “Va’ad HaRabbanim L’Inyonei Tzedaka”, and with the consent and sanction of the rav of the Nachlat Har Chabad community, Rabbi Yitzchak Yehuda Yeruslavski, secretary of the Chabad Rabbinical Court in Eretz HaKodesh.
The directors of this fund ask everyone to contribute according to his/her means, and Heaven will surely give just reward to those who respond positively to this fervent appeal.
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