Scheiner Launches Pesach Collection

Dear Crown Heights Resident,

Let me start off by saying how much I admire you. You get up early in the morning and work hard sometimes until the sun comes up the next morning, when sleep finally catches up to you. All this hard work is not just to earn a living. Oh no! After a hard day’s work you invest time, money, and energy to help those in need.

I should know! I have often asked for help and it was given with a generous hand. It is with trepidation that I ask for more.

You ask why? You know that I always brave the weather and my own health problems to give out the freshest chicken, fish, vegetables, and even dairy products. I even, with your generous help, manage to give a breakfast to those who dashed out the door without one.

Even with your magnanimous help I barely get by. My latest “clients” need so much more. We all think the good times will be forever, When we stand with our beloved under the chupah who could imagine that by the first anniversary our head could be bent with insults and our eyes blackened by rough fists. Many people don’t leave their spouse until the children have “mysterious” broken arms from a fall down the stairs that they never fell down. Why? Often the abuser is the main breadwinner and after a trip to divorce court the parent taking care of the battered children is penniless. The parent faces additional problems as child welfare insists that food be bought and properly fitting clothes procured even when there is no money for them. Or else!

That is where I come in. I take the parent and the children to the grocery store to get fresh food to fill their empty bellies. I take them to get proper fitting clothes and shoes each time the children outgrow them. And I don’t just do this for victims of abuse. What about widows and orphans? The Torah commands us to help them.

When a father works hard to pay the bills but suddenly something happens. He gets “that illness,” the one so horrific we are commanded not to mention its name. Suddenly the family’s assets are liquidated to pay for any treatment that would buy the family time. Of course at this point other organizations try to help. But suddenly it’s over.

The wife gets up from shiva with the worry of how she will manage. And I step in again with a loving hand, food to fill the bellies and clothes/shoes to give a sense of normalcy in a painful existence. What about the horrific tragedy of a loving husband who had a terrible accident at work. Everyone daavened for a miracle. But there was a brain hemorrhage, and the miracle didn’t come. This time 7 orphans needed my help. Like a loving grandmother, I stepped in and I continue to help.

I am not saying that I don’t try to raise money from other sources; of course I do. But things are getting harder and harder. Unlike other charities, as you know, I don’t have an overhead. I don’t have a Manhattan office and tons of secretaries. I don’t even take a percentage. Except of heavenly blessings, which I do so terribly need. My husband’s health hasn’t been doing that well lately, and he needs me. Personally I am in and out of the hospital. But just like you I can’t stand to see unshed tears in a child’s eyes because of hunger or cold or being forced to wear ill-fitting clothes.

I am now starting the annual Pesach drive to help these families and others. I turn to you, yet once again, for even more help. May G-d grant you blessings in everything you do and have!

Please send your bountiful check to:
Devorah Scheiner’s Yom Tov Fund
519 Lefferts Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11225

Or donate online at http://chcentral.org/donate/
All donations are tax deductible