An Australian Jewish couple in their sixties are among the more than 150 people still unaccounted for in the collapse of the 12-story Surfside building near Miami, Florida last Thursday.
Many of the still missing are Jewish.
Relatives of Tzvi and Itty Ainsworth from all over the world are calling for “urgent prayers” for the couple, saying that their “hearts are bleeding,” reported the Australian Jewish News.
The couple have lived in Australia for two decades.
“There really are no words to express the pain that the community feels in relation to the entire tragedy and of course the two special people that we know and love,” Rabbi Nochum Schapiro, president of the Rabbinical Council of New South Wales, told the Jewish News.
Australian community organization Jewish House on Tuesday posted a Facebook statement in support of the families and victims of the building collapse.
Their “prayers and thoughts are with the victims and the families of the Florida building collapse,” they wrote.
“Sadly one couple who lived in our community for many years were in the building with this tragic event.”
They added, “We encourage people to recite Psalm 20 and give money to charity in their honor.”