Supporting Global Jewish Assistance and Relief Network Goes Far Beyond Our Regular Activities

As I am slowly recovering from a recent injury, on Thursday morning I received an urgent text from a close friend and Rabbi of a prominent Sephardic community at 5:30 am. He asked me to call him as soon as possible. I immediately called him, and he explained that a young man from Israel had passed away in Mexico over Rosh Hashana, and the family was struggling to transport the remains to Israel via New York. Given my Chabad connections, he hoped I could help. I quickly contacted the Chabad emissaries in Cuzamel and Cancun, who put me in touch with the local funeral home holding the body. Despite initial challenges, including no available flights on Thursday, with a few phone calls and gentle persuasion emphasizing the importance of expediting the body for Jewish burial, a flight was found for later that afternoon. The remains arrived in NY at 8:00pm Thursday night, was received by the funeral home, and the body was sent to Israel Saturday night for burial.

Later that same today, my phone was ringing non stop, as just over 300 people returning from Uman, Ukraine missed their return flight to New York and were stranded in Kishinev, Moldova.

As messages were being sent looking for a Jewish connection to Moldova, hundreds of calls were directed to me.

I naturally called my good friend Rabbi Zushe Abelsky of Chabad Moldova for assistance.

Within minutes, I was given a link to share with all those who reached out to me, and everything was arranged.

Over the weekend, my message box was full of thank you notes from people, expressing their appreciation for the level of assistance and care they received from Chabad of Moldova.

While the convenient response might have been to ignore these calls as its holiday and that I’m recovering, we understand that Hashem’s blessing in my miraculous recovery, is absolutely related to my desire to help people whererver they are.

Thank you Hashem for giving me the strength and connections.

Thank you my dear friends and supporters for keeping Global Jewish in your minds and for your support.

As long as our mission to help Jews wherever they are and within our means remains consistent, we will continue with Hashems help to do just that.

Gmar Chatima tova

Rabbi Lazer Avtzon

Zelle to Global Jewish @ 917-804-7224, or at our website www.globaljewish.org
Thank you