Welcome Home

I’ve shared a number of small world stories lately and here goes another one- which is just amazing!

At Lev Lalev we have donors, friends, and activists from all over the world. In 2011 a Swedish couple who had emigrated to Australia made a donation to help our girls. By 2014 they had given over twenty five times. When we received a request for fifty tzedakah boxes, I decided to call them and discuss what they would do with so many”Pushkes”. They told me that they would distribute them throughout the Jewish community in Melbourne.

We also discussed their background including their desire to convert to Judaism. We’ve been in touch over the years but I never asked about the status of their conversion. However, on Purim of this year we received a donation from them with a note indicating that they had both changed their names ( I smiled realizing that they had probably converted). But- the story doesn’t end here. Yesterday I was on the phone with my son Shlomo who is a Rabbi in Melbourne. In passing he told me that later on in the day he would be a Ade (a witness) in a conversion. I was awestruck, as was he, as we had  a back and forth conversation establishing the fact that these new converts to Judaism were donors to Lev Lalev that I had known for many years!

Mazel Tov to our friends in Melbourne. B’ruchim Haboim and welcome. We understand the long journey and are so happy that you have “Come Home”. When they visit Israel I know that they will make Lev Lalev one of their destinations and there they will see how their chesed, tefffilahs, and hard work has helped our orphaned and disadvantaged girls at Lev Lalev.

When they have nowhere to turn, who will be there for them?