The rabbi of a synagogue destroyed by fire in Bergen County has promised to rebuild with help from community donations that had exceeded $260,000 nearly a week after the devastating blaze.

The four-alarm fire broke out about 2:45 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 8, at Beth El Chabad on Montross Avenue, where Rabbi Yitzchok Lerman and his family, who lived in an apartment inside the synagogue, escaped unharmed.

But the building collapsed in the flames, leaving the rabbi and family members without a home or place or worship.

“We heard glass breaking. We saw the flames. When we heard the fire alarms go off, we quickly grabbed our children, ran out of our home,” Lerman said in a video posted to a fundraising website.

The video shows Lerman standing against the backdrop of the burned-out synagogue, r

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