L Kallah. Yad Batya. Our Delivery Crew Ella Adler, Public Relations, Deliveries THE WOMEN BEHIND THE SCENES

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1 Yad Batya L Kallah ISSUE Established in memory of BATYA RACHEL (ZAKHEIM) BRECHER A H ISSU SUE 26 TISHREI FALL 2013 THIS NEWSLETTER IS PUBLISHED THE WOMEN BEHIND THE SCENES Interviews with veteran Yad Batya L Kallah Volunteers What inspired them to get involved What drives them to be committed Our Delivery Crew Ella Adler, Public Relations, Deliveries How did your close connection to YBLK begin? One motzaei shabbos, Chevi K. called me asking if I would pick up two packages and deliver them. It was a freezing night. When we got to the garage, the Zakheims saw us outside and invited us in for something warm. We came in and we ended staying and schmoozing for a while. A week later my son was niftar suddenly. Imagine! Just that week we had connected with the Zakheims and other than them we didn t know anyone else who had lost a child. After that, my life became Yad Batya L Kallah. It helped me move on. I saw how people could take something so tragic and do something meaningful. Right after our son s shloshim we began Matnas Michoel, a tefillin gemach. I learned not only how to survive the nisayon but to flourish. Yad Batya taught me how to keep my son alive. It showed me how people that leave physically don t leave spiritually. Batya has the power even from shamayim to continue bringing chessed. What is your job in YBLK? Many times, schools ask me to meet with their students at the garage as a part of their chessed field trip - I try to make YBLK come alive to them I tell them about Batya and show them what we do. What are some of your delivery stories? Here s my favorite one. My cousin lives out of town. She called me one day saying, My neighbors daughter is engaged. Her father lost his job years back and they are so poor that they don t even have food in the fridge but they re too proud to take. They would definitely be eligible for a YBLK package but how will I get them to take it? I helped her devise a plan. I told her to print up professional-looking raffle tickets. Send your daughter to the neighbor as if she s selling tickets. The neighbor is not going to know that she s the only one buying a ticket. My cousin was worried that her neighbor wouldn t even have the money to buy a ticket. So, I told my cousin (to tell her daughter) to say, It s a very small raffle, only 100 tickets and there s a very good chance of winning all these household items. The tickets are selling for a dollar or as much as you can give. The plan went without a hitch. The next day, she called to tell her that she won. Truth is, we all won! There was another time when we had to do a delivery. The people were very uncomfortable with receiving tzedaka. If it was frum people bringing the package, it would be very obvious to them, so, I dressed up goyish, chewed gum, wore denim and we went. I pretended I couldn t read the Jewish sounding name on the package. It really went over. I laughed my head off when I got into the car. I guess that s why Hashem made me an actress. Continued inside THE YAD BATYA L KALLAH PACKAGE: What does it include? (See back cover)

2 YBLK RESCUES A SHIDDUCH A woman called us the other day explaining how important it was that we help her daughter. The night before, her daughter had become engaged. Before the engagement was finalized, she sat down to meet the prospective machatonim. They wanted to know in clear terms what she and her husband would contribute towards setting up this new couple s life. They suggested that they buy the couple furniture. This mother told us, I was sitting there thinking, Furniture? I can t afford furniture. I hardly have a normal bed myself! Then she remembered Yad Batya L Kallah and the help they provided when she became a kallah. She told the prospective mechutan, I can t give furniture but I ll take responsibility for all the household items. I ll get them dishes, china, pots, linens, and quilts. The mechutonim were satisfied and the engagement was on thanks to YBLK. Continued from front cover Esther Rochel Bistritzky, Fundraising, Deliveries You give so much of your time and resources to YBLK- what inspired you to start? When my grandmother, Mrs. Shulamis Feder served as principal of Ahi Ezer Yeshiva, a Hebrew day school in Brooklyn, NY, she became close to many of the families and was instrumental in making them frum. Many of them were immigrants or needy. The time came to marry off their children; my grandmother enlisted my help in organizing their weddings. I saw the receiving end so when I was asked to be on the giving end, I was so excited. I ve seen many organizations but I never saw another organization run the way Yad Batya is run. The money is going straight to the kallahs. Even the garage is just a simple garage I don t find it to be a big deal to do a delivery, but every time I do I realize that for the recipient it s the biggest thing. They re so appreciative, so happy it s the nicest feeling. Rochel Brandwein, Case Manager How did you get connected to YBLK? In order to keep it confidential, I like to review applications when no one is home. I screen the kallahs for eligibility but daas torah makes the final decision. I love to call back the people and tell them they re accepted; it s a wonderful feeling. Yad Batya follows us wherever we go applications are received via fax and the fax machine comes with us to the country My involvement would not be possible without my husband. He is actively involved in YBLK; calling rabbanim, speaking to applicants and transporting packages. What have you gained from being involved? My house is the pick-up point for the Monsey packages. It changes the whole atmosphere in my home and I m forever grateful for this opportunity. Mr. Greenwald and Mr. Gruberger bring deliveries from the Brooklyn garage every Thursday night. As my children help shlep in the packages, they learn about giving. They see that there are real tzaros in this world and they realize that not everything is coming to them... I remember once my daughter was in her room when a kallah came with her mother to pick up a package. She knew not to come out of her room so as to protect their privacy. As they were taking the package, they were so excited and with each item they picked up, they kept saying, Wow, this is so beautiful! My daughter overheard and after they left she told me, I never knew people could be so grateful for such small things. I get to speak and meet with such special people - such chashuve rabbanim; they talk with such sensitivity. The busiest rabbanim return phone calls when they hear it s for Yad Batya. My family runs another g mach l ilui nishmas my son z l. One of the things we offer is wine for Pesach at a reduced cost. One person, while picking up their order, shared with us a comforting and beautiful thought. He said that in bais din shel maala everyone is sitting and learning. Then there s a klap on the bimah, A bottle of wine was bought; an aliya for the neshama of Menachem Nachum ben Aharon! The same is true here. With each package distributed, there s a klap on the bima, An aliya for the neshama of Batya Rachel bas R Moshe Yosef! It s such a zchus to be involved the only one who gains more than me is Batya. C.K., Deliveries Coordinator Since when are you involved in YBLK? I knew Batya. Batya and my sister were best friends. I remember her spunky personality; she was so full of life... After her petira, when I came to be menachem avel, her friends and family felt that her memory had to be perpetuated. The idea of hachnasas kallah was mentioned and everyone who knew Batya realized how very appropriate it was. What s your official job? I don t want to say much about what we do because we really have to protect people s privacy. What s my job? I don t know. I guess you would call me the coordinator. When I get a package I give it out for delivery. I try to assign volunteers in neighborhoods they are not familiar with. People find it easy to do hachnasas kallah since it s a simchadik mitzva. I know a family of girls who have been doing deliveries for years. As soon as one of the girls gets her driver s license, she calls me, Hi, I got my license, I want to start doing deliveries. Dubbi Eisen, Beth Rabinowitz, Bashie Cohen, Miri Meth, Sima Metzger, Chavi Gold and daughters, Devora Warshavchik, Frieda Solomon are constantly offering their help. One volunteer calls frequently and asks me, How come you re not calling me to deliver?

3 Aviva (Honikman) Goodman, Deliveries Years back, I helped with the mailing. It was like a mini post office in the Zakheim house with dozens of volunteers stuffing and sorting thousands of pieces of mail. The cohesiveness between YBLK volunteers was formed. In our early days, the Chinese auction was completely prepared by volunteers, from baking to fruit cutting, set up and clean up. I remember assembling all the prizes from exercise bikes to grills (and then disassembling and repacking!) till all hours of the night. Those were the days! Today, I help deliver. I love seeing the kallah s face- there s such relief. Mazel tov to Aviva upon her marriage! I ve seen many organizations but I never saw another organization run the way Yad Batya is run. The money is going straight to the kallahs. Even just a the garage is just ge simple garage Esther Rochel Bistritzky THANK YOU to DINI S WIGS for your gracious gift of shaitel boxes for our Kallahs. M.T., Case Manager What part of the job do you enjoy the most? When someone says to me, you don t know what a difference you make Sometimes I call people right before Shabbos just to tell them, I don t have the time to give you the details but I want you to go into Shabbos knowing that a package is on the way. There s such a personal, human quality to this organization. H.C., Deliveries Coordinator When I hear Yad Batya L Kallah, I see Batya s face in front of me, her wide, exuberant smile. Batya liked making people happy. I remember once referring a family to YBLK. The package arrived promptly. It was awesome. Beyond the monetary savings was the relief when the items arrived. By giving a package of household items you are sure that the kallah gets what she needs and the money doesn t get swallowed by other expenses. Also, because YBLK buys the merchandise at reduced wholesale prices, the kallah gets so much more. I m responsible for dispatching deliveries in Williamsburg and Monroe. We have three men that do the job. It s nice to see how some of them have already passed on this tradition to their children The Fundraising Group Lisa Rosenfeld, Merchandise and Fundraising Coordinator Devora Feit, Accounts Receivable Yad Batya keeps me busy daily weekly year round. I am responsible for inventory. The warehouse, actually a private house garage, has to be constantly stocked. I try to visit every few days to make sure all the items are in. Are there enough toasters? Do we need to reorder Corelle? I knew Batya and the Zakheim family from East Flatbush. When the organization was started, I felt that I had to be part of this important cause. Yossie and Susie Sochoczewsky created the data entry and fundraising structure. I worked very closely with them on a daily basis building up the organization. It was almost twenty six years ago when we sent out our first mailing to let people know about YBLK. Eventually, Linda (Schick) Lev and I took the responsibility to oversee all the mailing. Now, anything that has to do with computers, data entry, contributor lists and mailing is my domain. The YBLK office is stationed at the Zakheim house on East 26th Street. At times I m there on a daily basis. Throughout the year, I recruit volunteers to package linens and towels. The operation takes over the Zakheim s dining room for a few days. I am also the contact person between the applicants and the delivery coordinator. Over the years, I had the zechus to recruit many volunteers, such as Esti Klepfish, Chaya Bracha Rabinowitz, Naomi Rhein, Yocheved Spector and Sarah Grunseid (my nine year old niece!) Throughout the year, I also have to keep tabs on donations through the credit card machine. Around the auction time, I m on the computer till all hours of the night processing orders. There s a lot going on at YBLK! On occasion, I enjoy sitting around the kitchen table with Venezia exchanging ideas for the upcoming event. I feel like part of the family Yad Batya L Kallah has become a part of my life. Recently, a woman came to pick up a package. As the garage door lifted and she saw the loaded warehouse she exclaimed What a heilige garage!

4 Make a house into a home [ ] $600 - All Inclusive Home Package [ ] $360 - Kitchen Essentials [ ] $250 - Bed and Bath Needs (See back page for the YBLK Package list) Aliza Lichtenstein, Fundraising Batya a h was my cousin so I ve been involved all along. When I was little, I helped with the mailings. But my real involvement began when I began taking home all the unclaimed prizes after the auction and contacting the winners for pickup, (relieving my aunt Venezia of the tedious task!). I get to call all the people and tell them that they won. That s my favorite part! Now I help with the auction sales and tickets. My husband wrote a computer program that generates the tickets; we re talking about thousands of tickets. It s exciting to see the money come in. It is very important to me that my kids see that I don t get paid for this. My kids love to help and I use it as a bribe. I tell them, You can t help me with Yad Batya unless you do your homework. One year, I had a baby on the Friday before the YBLK annual auction. I came home from the hospital on Sunday with 200 order forms which had to be done within a few days. And it got done. I call her my Yad Batya baby My friends know that the week of the YBLK event, you don t talk to me. One friend sends me supper every night that week. Sometimes my job seems insignificant since I don t handle the cases but the truth is that without money there s no organization. Batya Kahn, Public Relations/Marketing You are so involved what is your actual job? What s my job? No one has a job. That s the beauty of it People associate me with Yad Batya. It s just a part of me. It all started with the blizzard of 96 I remember exactly when I got to know about the organization. I was eighteen. The YBLK event was the night of the blizzard. The coordinators were worried that no one would show so they were recruiting anyone who would come. I was by my friend s house that night. Her mother, Barbara Schwek, a principal of a school, had seen YBLK work firsthand; It s such a zchus to be involved the only one who gains more than me is Batya a h. Rochel Brandwein wein she had YBLK deliver packages to her house for many of her students and was blown away by their chessed. She told us to go to the event. We went by taxi in the blizzard. I was totally wowed by the organization and I wanted to do something. I was chasing after Venezia; I just wanted to get involved. I started helping them collect prizes. I would go from store to store asking for goods. Eventually I felt it wasn t getting me anywhere; I wasn t getting enough. So I started collecting money and then I would go to the stores and negotiate better deals on auction prizes I started helping the marketing end of YBLK. I made contact with graphic designers to improve the ads and auction booklet. When we needed a phone number on the booklet for orders, I volunteered to put mine. Eventually we got a credit card machine, and then a website; every year we tried to do something new. YBLK was the first one to start making private parties and taking the auction to individual communities. What is special about being involved in Yad Batya L Kallah? I think the best thing that happened to me through Yad Batya was getting to know Venezia. What s your insider s perspective of Yad Batya? You don t have an organization that works like this, watching every penny. Michal (Zakheim) Klerer, Public Relations/ Marketing I was young when Batya was nifteres and I wanted to be able to connect. Eight years ago, I decided it was time to get actively involved. I started chairing the event with my cousin Aliza Lichtenstein. Eventually I coordinated the big YBLK shidduchim initiative. I got addicted, and this year I even had the zchus to host the event in my home. What s your official responsibility? In general, my main involvement is the event. What s interesting is that I had been involved for years and I had never come to the garage. Recently, I was asked to pick up a package for someone. When I saw the garage for the first time I was blown away. I was thinking, So this is what we do! This is where all the money goes! From my end, my biggest satisfaction until now had been seeing how many people came to the event and how much money is raised; suddenly I realized that all that was the means to fill this garage! SIDURIM & CHUMASHIM Sepharad & Ashkenaz Available for use at your Shabbos simcha with a donation to Yad Batya L Kallah BROOKLYN: Mrs. Malky Stern FIVE TOWNS: Mrs. Elefant , (eve.)

5 What keeps you going? Bridging the past to the future. Venezia Zakheim, Co-Founder Ayala Berney, Co-Founder Tell me about the start of YBLK. When my sister was nifteres my only sister, my life was ripped out of me. I had to think of a way to hold on to her, to hold on to the simcha, the laughter and the giggle, the chessed and giving. And Yad Batya was born. I vividly remember thinking how everyone knew about the Rivka Laufer Bikur Cholim. So, too, we desperately wanted to create something big so that everyone would know Batya s name. It was the only way to hold on to her. Hashem fulfilled that need beyond our wildest dreams. When we started the organization, I worried How would people hear about us and know to call us for help? But they did. In the kitchen of my little apartment the phone just started ringing and ringing. So many people wanted to connect and get involved. It was a revolution of transforming something so sad into something that brings so much happiness. And that was the essence of Batya. What is your official responsibility? I used to take all the application requests but with the passing years it grew exponentially so we started designating different communities to different people. Rochel Brandwein, Miriam T., Faige Schwartz and Fradie Klein all joined the team. And of course I couldn t manage without Lisa Rosenfeld. Let me share with you something especially meaningful. A call came in but my hands were full and I couldn t take it. One of my grown children said, I m going to take care of it because it sounds like a pressing situation. The woman sounds very alone and desperate. This means so much to me because it tells me it s become part of my family; it s in their hearts. After all these years, we still remember that we re dealing with real people, people that are sometimes in pain, and it s not just an organization. When do you fit YBLK into your daily schedule? I don t know. Hashem helps. It just happens. What do you find most meaningful about the work of YBLK? I personally get gratification when a request is made for very choshuve people, sometimes roshei yeshiva or marbitzei torah, people who are rich in ruchniyus, rich in yiras shamayim, but money they don t have. We have the tremendous zchus to help their children build beautiful Torah dike homes. We have gained much more than they have. IN GRATITUDE to the multitudes of YBLK volunteers far and wide who have been devoted to the cause throughout the past 26 years. Your unsung dedication to matan b seser is the hallmark of k lal yisrael and the greatest Kiddush Hashem. May it serve as a zchus for you and an aliya for the neshama of our dear Batya z l.

6 A Party in Your Home for the Kallah Down the Block In grateful communities across the United States and Canada, YBLK continues to provide for every kallah in need. To demonstrate their tremendous hakaras hatov, several communities hosted successful parties for YBLK s annual benefit. Scores of women gathered together to show their enthusiastic support for the substantial work YBLK has done in their community. Kudos to those who opened their hearts and their homes. Mrs. Joycee Erani, who hosted a party in her home for the Flatbush Syrian community, showed her untiring devotion to YBLK by singlehandedly organizing and preparing the wholeday event. The spiritually invigorating day was hosted by three pillars of the Syrian community, Mrs. Carole Haber, Mrs. Bonnie Mansour and Mrs. Barbara Ozeirey. Mrs. Naomi Sutton spoke from the heart about the vital work of YBLK. In Great Neck, women flocked to the home of Mrs. Malka Sonbolian, greeted by a stunning display of delectable dishes. They were also entertained and inspired by the passionate words of Rabbanit Tamar Rosenthal, an inspiring speaker and dear friend of YBLK. Mrs. Esther Rochel Bistritzky, a longtime, selfless volunteer of YBLK, once again employed her generous spirit by hosting an elegant party in her home. Yitty Blatt, Batya Kahn and Adina Puderbuetal hosted this lavish event, complete with gourmet cuisine and vibrant floral decor. Mr. Charlie Harary, renowned for his impassioned clarity, taught the participants the path to: Tapping into Your Inner Greatness. In Monsey, scores of women joined at the home of Mrs. Gila Zelinger. The buffet served as a feast for the eyes and palette. Mrs. Ayala Berney, sister of Batya, gave her personal perspective of YBLK, an organization she founded in partnership with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Zakheim. Special thanks to Mrs. Nechama Weitz, whose untiring efforts were largely responsible for the evening s great success. In Queens, Marlene Kolangi and Orit Newman hosted a well-attended party in the home of Mrs. Hindy Amsel. Rabbi Yehoshua Kurland, noted lecturer and author, addressed the audience. The guests filled the room with warm camaraderie, happy to share in this integral mitzvah. A true gathering l shem shamayim. The final gathering was hosted at a gala event held in the home of Mrs. Michal Klerer, cousin of Batya and ever-devoted YBLK volunteer. The evening was dedicated as a zechus refuah shleima for Michal s father, Shlomo Eliezer ben Chaya Sara Elka. Longtime supporters along with newcomers streamed in, filling the home beyond capacity. Everyone came to show their admiration for the twenty-five years YBLK has excelled in hachnasas kallah. Rebbetzin Aviva Feiner of Far Rockaway further uplifted the participants hearts with words of Torah inspiration. The event concluded with the much-anticipated raffle drawings. Everyone left gratified in knowing they helped YBLK continue building beautiful batei ne eman b Yisrael. THE YBLK PACKAGE: Helping Our Kallahs Make a Home What does each Kallah receive? Each YBLK Package includes: 2 Sets of Pots 2 Sets of Flatware Corelle China Kitchen & Bath Towels 2 Sets of Patterned Linens Quilts Pillows Iron Hand Mixer Food Processor Toaster Oven