Feeling Their Pain

by Shalvi Weissman

Working at Yad Eliezer I hear a lot of heartbreaking stories. For the most part I prefer to write about stories where there is a happy ending; where Yad Eliezer was able to step in and change people’s lives significantly.



But sometimes it is not so simple. Sometimes the pain and loss are so raw, that even thousands of dollars cannot fill the gap. It is harder to write about and to read these stories, so for the most part I prefer not to write about them. But this week the Jewish people are commemorating Tisha B’Av, the day that the Holy Temple was destroyed. As long as HaShem’s home is in ashes the lives of the Jewish people will be incomplete. If there is ever a time for the caustic stories it is now.



Consider the Kopsky family. They turned to Yad Eliezer for help in providing a tefillin and a minimal respectable Bar Mitzvah for their son Isaac. Less than a year earlier they had lost their father and breadwinner. They had anticipated a family vacation with joy and excitement. Imagine their shock and horror when standing in front of their home surrounded by suitcases, they witnessed the father have a heart attack and pass away.



Or the Harari Family. On the way to a holiday celebration a terrorist ran over their car with a tractor, killing the father and the baby. The mother fought to have the murder registered by the government as an act of terror, which would entitle the family to a stipend that would help them survive, however without any proof of intent the authorities refused to do so, considering it a traffic accident.



Mrs. Friedman was diagnosed with cancer while pregnant. She did all of the aggressive treatments that the doctors suggested with the hope that she would live to raise her baby and her older children. The family was inconsolable when she passed away. Miraculously the baby survived and is being raised by her aunt. The aunt struggles to feed her own children, and Yad Eliezer was asked to provide formula for the baby.



For so many widows and orphans, pain is a constant companion. Yad Eliezer does all that we can to help them heal and live a life of self respect. With your help these families’ basic needs are provided for. We show our Father in Heaven that we care for our ‘siblings’, and hope that in the merit of our unity we will merit the ultimate redemption.

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