Badatz Mashgichim, Local Jews Recount How They Survived Deadly Earthquake In Turkey

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In an interview with Israel radio’s Esti Perez, Ezra Janoudi, a Jew living in the city of Antakya described the terrifying moments of the earthquake which destroyed his home.

Janoudi said that “I hope everything will be OK. I lost everything, I don’t have Tefillin or a Tehillim.”

Janoudi said that he is currently outside Antakya but intends to return to the city to estimate the damage to his property. He then intends to go to Istanbul. “I have no place to live,” he says tearfully in Turkish, translated by a member of his community, Rabbi Avraham Haim.

Janoudi said that he managed to escape from his collapsing building with only the shoes on his feet and nothing else.

Ten mashgichim  (kashrus supervisors) from the Eda Chareidis’s Badatz Kashrus supervision were present in Turkey during the earthquake. Two of them were at the epicenter of the earthquake, supervising local factories in the stricken region.

The two said that the earthquake caught them sleeping, as “the buildings shook for two minutes like cards.”

They added that “we ran in the middle of the night into the cold, snowy open street for a few hours until the concern for further aftershocks had abated.”

One of the Mashgichim is now in Gazintop, an industrial area frequented by the Badatz and is now one of the centers of devastation from the earthquake. The other one is in Marsin near the Mediterranean, which was also damaged in the quake.

The Eda Chareidis is investing efforts to return the Mashgichim home in the wake of the difficult situation on the ground and the possibility of further snow and fog preventing the Mashgichim from returning to Istanbul in the coming days.

Four other Mashgichim from the Belz Badatz were also present in the region and had arrived to supervise milking. They related that they rose early at 4 AM to go to the farms and suddenly the earthquake started, but fortunately their hotel did not collapse and they even continued on their mission to the farms to supervise the milking.

“We thank Hashem for the chesed he did with us and pray that he will continue to help us and may we continue to do meritorious actions for the public. We are emissaries of the Jewish nation to provide kosher food for Jews,” they concluded