AUSTRALIA — As the death toll rose in the worst wildfires to strike Australia in recent memory, the nation’s tight-knit Jewish community mounted an effort to help citizens whose homes and towns have been utterly destroyed.

In the state of Victoria, where most of the infernos ravaged brush-land before turning towards population centers, the Moorabbin Hebrew Congregation, led by Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Elisha Greenbaum, was among several synagogues to amass blankets, linens, clothes, toys and food for the fire evacuees. The local Hatzolah Centre in Caulfield North will distribute the donated items.

“There’s a whole ballroom full of badly-needed items,” said Greenbaum.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took to the airwaves Monday after police announced that at least two fires appeared to be deliberately set. Rudd called the outbreak, which has killed at least 130 people, “mass murder.”

Fleeing homeowners described a horror of heat and flame that consumed everything in its path.

Article continued at Chabad.org