48 Hours Separated 100 Israelis from Death in New Zealand

Aftermath of New Zealand Earthquake Israel news photo: courtesy of Chabad.org  by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu One hundred Israeli backpackers were in a Chabad center in New Zealand but left two days before the building collapsed in last week's lethal earthquake. Only three Jews were in the Chabad Center in Christchurch when the quake struck. One of them was the center’s director, Rabbi Shmuel Friedman, whose wife Tzipi said saw the roof fall in and then ran without looking back. At the same time, she was home with her one-year-old son in the Friedman’s fifth-floor apartment. “The ovens came out of the socket, cupboards came down, everything started to fly – I ran to get my son but the floor was shaking back and forth,” she said. Read the whole story on: Arutz7 Grim Prognosis for New Zealand: AssociatedPress | Feb 26, 2011  New Zealand's premier said the Christchurch quake may be the country's worst disaster ever, as officials raised the toll Saturday to 145 dead and more than 200 missing while giving a grim prognosis for the city's downtown. (Feb. 26)