Op-Ed: A Public Plea For Help

We are a group of parents that B.H. are blessed to have a child that is engaged to get married or has already gotten married but not in the Hall that they reserved.

We all have something in common; we reserved the “Razag Hall” for the marriage of our child to take place starting after Purim. We all gave the mandatory deposit of $5,000.00 and started preparing for our weddings.
Unfortunately, as we all know, that due to the virus R”L weddings were not allowed to take place in a hall.

We were obviously all shocked and confused. What will we do about our child’s wedding?

One can only imagine the confusion & heartache. On one hand, we are talking about the immense joy of marrying off a child and on the other hand, the plans to have a “normal wedding” was not possible.

As we, the parents realized that there was no possibility of using the “Razag Hall” for the marriage of our child we contacted the Manager of the “Razag Hall”, and requested that our deposit be returned to us. Of course, we consulted with Rabbanim before requesting that our deposit be returned.

The manager was extremely vague and at one point said that “they” were going to discuss the issue with Rabbi Osdoba. We assume that “they” is referring to Rabbi Motti Gurary and Rabbi Yossi Simpson that are at the head of the Institution that runs the “Razag Hall”.

To this day, we have not received a clear answer.

We believe that there are at least 30 weddings, which reserved the “Razag Hall” during this period. At a minimum that is at least $150,000.00 that was clearly dedicated by us the parents for our child’s wedding and definitely not for anything else.

For many of the parents making a wedding is not easy. There are many expenses. Many of the parents have taken loans to pay for their child’s wedding. Some of the parents are Shluchim, teachers, etc. This injustice must be dealt with so that our children have their weddings without this added misery.