Community Mobilizes, Raises $1M for Polonskys

From the JTA:

A few months back, Simi Polonsky was posting photos of herself on Instagram dressed in colorful modest-chic outfits — the kind of fashionable clothing that nonetheless adheres to Orthodox Jewish dress standards.

Polonsky is a co-founder of The Frock NYC, a fashion label created in 2010 that has built substantial buzz as the industry incorporates more demure and religious styles into its mainstream.

These days, The Frock’s Instagram page is far more somber. Polonsky’s husband Shua passed away on Nov. 9 from a condition he had contracted only weeks before.

She has written openly on the company’s Instagram page about her struggles, religious and non-, to cope with his condition and his eventual death. A week before his passing, she wrote that she thought she would have to shut The Frock down.

She also posted multiple family photos on the account, and in one chronicled how a doctor gave Shua his grim diagnosis.

As difficult as the time has been for Simi and her two young children, one big consolation has been the popularity of a fundraising campaign at the crowdsourcing site Charidy, which as of Wednesday has raised over $1 million from nearly 9,000 donations.

Click here to continue reading at the JTA.

6 Comments

  • To Chaim #2

    I don’t think the donations were from ONLY Crown Heights. I believe it was a joint international effort.

  • Lawrence

    This IS Crown Heights
    This is US (us, not United States)
    However the Community should make a Mivtza with exact hidur as the other mivtzoim
    All couples getting married ought to take out reciprocal Life Insurance policies
    I am not USA citizen so don’t know the Tax laws or breaks however community has knowledgable persons

    Let’s do it and do it today

    • Not everyone

      Not everyone is eligible for life insurance. This is a dumb statement to make.

      How would you like it if you were turned down for life insurance, then passed and had people making snide remarks about buying life insurance?

      The community mobilized and did a tremendous mitzvah, that’s all that matters.

  • Lawrence

    Nonsense #4
    Dumb statement to denigrate me
    When literally 100’s of Rabbonim worldwide have expressed similar sentiments
    We are discussing young couples here not decrepit aged individuals suffering from the excesses of a “ good life”
    It is a Mitzva Gedoloh and can’t be over stressed I don’t want to mention Posekei HaDor who concur but EACH of the Poskim I am thinking of redouble their efforts to help cases similar to the current nevertheless they advocate strongly the position I articulated
    Muftir of Parshas ki tseitsei springs to mind.