$250,000 Given to Single Mothers

By COLlive reporter

After the $556,000 in groceries given to teachers in Crown Heights by the Igud Hamelamdim organization, COLlive.com has learned about another major gift given for Pesach.

This second gift came from the Keren Hachomesh, a charitable foundation founded by the Rebbe following the passing and in memory of his wife, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson OBM.

The fund’s mission is to support Jewish women through various causes, such as education, shidduch support and Hachnasas Kallah, Mikvahs, childbirth, relationship counseling, parenting and homebuilding.

In recent days, the fund sent out $1,000 checks to 250 single mothers living in Crown Heights to assist with alleviating the financial costs and responsibilities of preparing and celebrating Pesach.

Another gift from Keren Hachomesh this Pesach was a $5,000 check to Devorah Scheiner‘s Yomtov Fund which distributes various foods to Crown Heights families around the year.

“Keren Hachomesh recently launched a renewed campaign in conjunction with the Rebbetzin’s 30th yahrzeit,” Rabbi Shmaya Krinsky, one of the organizers of the fund, told COLlive.com.

“The mail campaign brought attention to the Rebbe’s establishing of this fund in tribute to his Rebbetzin, and, thankfully, brought in additional funds to the foundation.

“Also, several caring donors stepped forward with considerable donations, which enabled us to double and triple the number of people and families we were able to help.

“We invite everyone to give to this cherished charity, honoring the Rebbe and Rebbetzin while helping those in need at kerenhachomesh.com.

The following is a letter written by one of the recipients of the Pesach gift:

This isn’t what I wanted. I wanted the happy family. I wanted to be together. To share the load. To share the joy. Because as hard as it is to not be able to share the challenges… it’s just as hard not having someone right there to share the joy, the nachas, to experience Shabbas and Yom Tov together after a full, busy week.

There is so much to be said about the experience of the single parent. There is so much silence surrounding the truth. There are so many things that people are afraid to say. Women so afraid of admitting they aren’t coping, afraid of the judgment that they face.

Women who are terrified to ask for help. Women who are asking for help and not getting it. Women who are struggling financially, emotionally, spiritually but who aren’t being heard. So many truths that aren’t understood. It is isolating and it is a very displacing feeling to bear along with the great responsibility, the decline in living conditions and lifestyle and, more often than not, no real help.

I felt an incredible pressure and stress mounting with every day that passed and brought me closer to Pesach. Carrying the sole financial responsibility for my family, without having to deal with Yom Tov, is an incredible struggle. But to manage Pesach alone and completely without support was just not humanly possible.

In silence, I pasted on a smile as I fulfilled my myriad of obligations, but they turned into hollow acts of servitude as my precious resources of time, energy and focus were depleted by all the roles I played.

In desperation, I took a few precious hours off from my job on Monday, and boarded the bus to the Ohel—the one place that I can cry out in public. I poured out my woes. My tears joined the river of other’s tears, hurrying along and moving upward toward Heaven.

As always do when I exit the Ohel, I visited our Rebbitzen. Weeping and begging my barriers completely broke down. Somehow, I left with a sense of tremendous comfort, almost as if I could hear the Rebbitzen responding and saying, “We hear your plight… let me help….”

That sense of comfort was dissipating over the next day when I opened the mail and found a gift—a significant check accompanied by a letter which read:
“These funds are from Keren Hachomesh, the fund established by the Rebbe זי”ע, on Chof Beis Shevat 5748, in the zechus and blessed memory of his wife, HoRabbonis Chaya Mushka ע”ה.

May these funds from such a holy kupah bring you, and all your loved ones, abundant blessings in all your endeavors, materially and spiritually.”
No words can adequately express my thanks to Keren Hachomesh for remembering our predicament….to be seen…to be supported….to be included. Not only is the money significant enough to significantly change my family’s Pesach, having received these needed funds from the Rebbe and Rebbetzin’s fund makes this all the more meaningful and significant.

So profound thanks to the silent heroes that made this possible for me and for so many others in the same situation.

May you be blessed.