Dear Fellow Anash:
Sholom Aleichem! Warm greetings and blessings! I hope this email finds you in the best of health and spirits.
Attached is an incredibly inspiring letter the Rebbe wrote to all Yidden in prison for chanukah. Aleph, which the Rebbe started in 5741, is an expression of the Rebbe's unconditional love for so many neshomos - ensuring them they are not forgotten or alone.
Please consider giving Aleph's matching campaign underway a much needed boost. We need a big west coast push to get us over the hill and ensure Aleph can continue it's vital work for thousands who are going through indescribable pain.
It's a tremendous Zechus - one the Rambam, calls the greatest Mitzvoh
Please visit www.alephhope.org - the campaign is almost over - and/or pls email me your pledge [email protected]
Several months ago, I sat next to a 15 year old boy, Noah* as he watched - amidst uncontrollable sobs and disbelief - as his mom (whose feet and arms were cuffed and who never had any prior trouble with the law ) was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison. It was the first time in 18 months that he was seeing her without a glass separating them. The judge did not grant the boy's request to hug his mom. It was alleged that that at some point during her job, she knew about - and participated in - her employers' fraudulent medicare billing scheme. Ironically, she chose to work at this particular health care company because she's a single mom and the company allowed to get home on time for her 2 children's return from school.
Whether it was arranging a contact visit for Noah with his mom - shortly after the sentencing, or reassuring Noah and his sister that Aleph would look out for his mom, visit her, and help her in any which way (including advocating for her to get to a good place) - all of which BH happened, and that Noah can reach out to us anytime he needs anything, it meant the world to this broken hearted family to know they are not alone
For thousands of precious and vulnerable children, many of whom witness their father or mother get arrested, Aleph has become their immediate family providing critical support on so many levels. It's unfathomable what these families go through. Shame, stigma, fear, destitution.......... In a recent case a young mother didn't have money for gas to take her 5 children who longed to see their dad in prison. (Of course, Aleph's family services division jumped in to provide food, rent, camp for the kids, transportation to prison etc.)
For thousands of precious and vulnerable children, many of whom witness their father or mother get arrested, Aleph has become their immediate family providing critical support on so many levels. It's unfathomable what these families go through. Shame, stigma, fear, destitution.......... In a recent case a young mother didn't have money for gas to take her 5 children who longed to see their dad in prison. (Of course, Aleph's family services division jumped in to provide food, rent, camp for the kids, transportation to prison etc.)
I am writing to ask if you would consider helping us respond to the 10,000+ desperate cries for help Aleph fields every year from shattered families and their loved ones in prisons and mental institutions nationwide Your donation will BEH be tripled!
Your partnership will please G-d make a tremendous impact:
---For the wife and her children who are pleading to know that their husband/dad is getting adequate medical treatment in jail for the spreading cancer;
---For the the lonely struggling soul pleading for a visit, some books and someone to help bring some meaning and purpose to his/her life,
---For the elderly man, asking for a commissary stipend so he can call his grandchildren and buy some warm clothing and snacks.
May this act of kindness, - amongst the countless others you do - bring unfiltered blessing and may you and yours be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet year. Indeed, we are taught by showing compassion instead of judgment, we elicit the same from Hashem.
May the joy you bring to the broken hearted radiate back at you and may we merit the coming of Moshiach immediately!
A Gut Gebentchte Zieser yohr!!!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Warmly,
Zvi
P.S. One more moving anecdote, if I may, from Aleph's project Tikvah which helps hundreds of teens in/facing prison stemming from unaddressed addiction/mental illness:
Sara, who was molested by her step dad and landed up in prison (she became addicted to drugs when trying to drown out the pain) was in a state of despair. In her words: “I did not want drugs. I wanted help; I wanted to cope with the pain, shame and guilt.”
Aleph's team - who provided critical ongoing emotional and spiritual support throughout her incarcerations - secured a pivotal and highly effective forensic report on the abuse she endured, which had a very positive impact in court. B"H today she is rebuilding her life again and wrote a most moving letter,
“If it wasn’t for Aleph’s help, I do not know if I would have been able to get through that experience. What your organization does is an ongoing display of human kindness. From the depths of my soul - I appreciate all that you've done for me and for the openness and genuineness that you have displayed for me.”
*Name changed for privacy.
