As we mark one year since the pandemic changed our lives,
we asked you to introduce us to your COVID heroes

I’m not usually included on such email chains, but I had played a small role in a communal affair some months ago, and my email address was added to a group that included the Who’s Who of askanus in our community. It was initially exhilarating to see my name among some of our biggest philanthropists and community leaders, but the conversation ended pretty quickly and there was no email traffic for a while.

Then just about a year ago, as the first lockdown took hold, the thread was revived. I didn’t really belong there, but I was on it, so I was privy to the most extraordinary chain of chesed I have ever seen in my lifetime.

The first email was businesslike and straight to the point. Rabbosai, mishpachos in our community are in desperate need. The economy was badly affected and people won’t be getting their paychecks before Pesach. We need some sort of keren to help them out. A few lines were devoted to details of who would oversee the funds and which rabbanim would be involved in the distribution. The email concluded, Please reply to this email with pledges.

The first reply came in barely a minute later. It contained less than five characters: 100k.

No comments, no questions asked, no insistence on seeing the paperwork, not even a message about what a zechus it is to be able to be mishtatef with such an honored group. Just a pledge — of an astronomical sum — to help a Yid b’tza’ar.

Then another email hit my inbox: Put me down for 50K.

A third businessman replied with a similar amount, followed by a fourth. The fifth email was bit more exciting: $25,000 — adding Boruch Carlebach and Daniel Magid, both of whom responded with equal generosity.

Throughout the day, emails flowed into my Inbox, each one containing a pledge for a small fortune. There were no diamond pages, no patrons, no Amud HaKeren, no international honorary committee cochairmen, and not a whit of publicity. Just names and their pledges, coming in fast and furious.

36K, looping in Ezzy Eisenbach.

I’ll give 18k, tizku l’mitzvos!

Beautiful! $10,000.

In some instances, the auto-signatures were longer than the emails themselves. 25K. Keep it up, wrote Yisroel Shulman, President and CEO, Sunset Care Enterprises, Where your loved ones are cared for as our own. Mr. Munk will give another 20K, wrote Yechezkel, sent from my iPhone.

Some names I recognized, others I didn’t. But all contributors shared remarkable achrayus for their brethren. By the end of the afternoon, between that first 100k all the way until 2,500, pls send wire info, an astounding one million dollars had been raised.

That evening I went out to stock up on some essential groceries. As I entered the supermarket, a sleek black sedan pulled up. Its shining chrome grille practically screamed “VIP.” The door swung open and the driver did not disappoint: His pinstriped suit contrasted perfectly with a crisp business shirt and he managed to navigate his shopping cart without ever taking his steely eyes off his smartphone. The white earbud perfectly completed the look. More than a few shoppers raised their eyebrows, and along with their admiration, I sensed a certain cynicism as Mr. Important glided around the store.

Maybe yesterday I would have been cynical too. But I had seen it in real time: Just an hour before, this very fellow had given a small fortune to assist a Yid b’tza’ar. As I watched him exit the store and slip back into his luxury vehicle, I felt a rush of awe and love and gratitude for our great nation and its people.

—Yosef Herz serves as Associate Director of the NJ Office of Agudath Israel.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 854)