Event planners hired a disused IKEA building to accommodate the thousands of participants, many of whom traveled for hours from Manchester and Gateshead to attend. Schools across the country shut for the day to allow students to travel and take part.

The gentle strains of the choir echoed across the enormous hall as the crowd of many thousands took their seats, setting the tone for the arrival of the ziknei u’manhigei hador.

“It’s like the Chofetz Chaim came to town,” said Rabbi Yitzchok Lev, a Golders Green-based rav, “and we’re all going out in bigdei Shabbos to greet him. This is a rare zechus for Yidden in the UK.”

“I came to bring my son,” a father from Manchester told me. “I wanted to give him chizuk and showcase to him that our connection to the gedolim is what’s important to us. When will he ever get to see this again?”

The moment the gedolim made their entrance, a palpable wave rippled through the crowd, the significance of the moment hitting home. Leading the way was Harav Dov Landau, the weight of the Olam HaTorah resting heavily on his shoulders.

Also accompanying the group was leader of chareidi Jewry in the UK, Gateshead rosh yeshivah Rav Avrohom Gurwicz. Mr. Steve Bodner, a confidante of the Rosh Yeshivah, related that Harav Gurwicz had been weighing  whether to undertake the time-consuming trip. But ultimately, it came down to one consideration: “If my presence will in any way assist the struggling avreichim in Eretz Yisrael, I will go,” said the Rosh Yeshivah.

Rav Avrohom Gurwicz emphatically set the tone for the evening: “Without Torah, life has no significance, no meaning and no purpose,” he said.

That morning, a small closed-door breakfast was held with the gedolim to give philanthropists the opportunity to pledge significant sums in support of the mission. The format was the same as in America, with Rav Dov Landau and Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch explaining why the unprecedented crisis of Eretz Yisrael’s Torah world demanded an unprecedented global response.

The campaign was the brainchild of Rav Yosef Chevroni, Rosh Yeshivas Chevron, along with renowned London askanim Mr. Leiby Levison, Mr. Danny Brodie, and Mr. Mendi Silber.

The results of the mission shattered all expectations. “We thought that we would get three to four million pounds,” said Mr. Leiby Levison. “Not all pledges have come through, but we’re up to well over eight million. Having gone live for twenty-four hours, an online crowdfunding page has seen a million pounds in donations.”

As with their visit to America, the outstanding results were firstly because of the appearance, in person, of such an unprecedented delegation. “Nobody in England has seen so many gedolim, or had access to them. And hearing them speak so passionately about the future of Torah made all the difference. People were awed.”

That feeling was measurable in the deluge of contributions. A growing proportion of a total British Jewish population of 230,000, England’s Torah community has punched well above its weight. “We’re five percent of America’s yeshivah world, and yet per capita what we raised was out of all proportion,” says Leiby Levison.

There’s a wider story at play in the superlative-generating visit. The surge of excitement and giving has, in a sense, acted as the coming-of-age of England’s Torah community “Most of the people around the tables at the events for the gedolim were in yeshivah and then kollel. They’re machshiv Torah and what the gedolim say matters to them, and so there was tremendous excitement.”

That sense of a generation of yeshivah and kollel graduates stepping up to the plate is a theme that has echoed throughout the historic campaign. Speaking at one of the receptions in America a few weeks ago, Mr. Reuven Wolf of Lakewood said that there was a sense of coming full-circle. “This is a massive display of chashivus haTorah, yet who taught us these values? The very gedolim who are here with us and now need our help,” he said.

With pledges on both sides of the Atlantic still being collected, the skeleton staff of askanim and donors are taking stock of the campaign’s success so far. “The numbers that we’re seeing here are very, very unusual,” says Zvi Belsky, “because the economy is not doing great. This giving is actually above and beyond normal philanthropy.”

The success of a crowdfunding campaign active for the last few weeks in America is evidence that motivation is high right down the ticket. Thirteen-million dollars have been raised from over 22,000 donors, of which nearly 20,000 donations are below $5,000.

But as the crisis in Eretz Yisrael grinds on — with the government barred by the courts from funding yeshivos and kollelim with students of draft age and beyond — the costs of the effort keep growing and the circle of donors will need to expand. “What people don’t realize is that the amount we need to raise grows by the month,” says Zvi Belsky. “Bochurim who turn 18, which is draft-age, are automatically ineligible for funding.  Additionally, every bochur who gets married is eligible for double the funding. Due to these factors, among others, the goal of $107 million is long out of date.”

To plug that daunting shortfall, on the horizon is a trip by the gedolim in Elul to Los Angeles, Miami, and possibly Latin America.

Against that background, keynote speaker Rav Ephraim Wachsman’s powerful words at the London event — which turned into a “mini-Hakhel” for the 10,000 plus people who attended — might well be the mission statement for the Keren Olam HaTorah’s worldwide effort. Rav Wachsman described a visit that Rav Boruch Ber Leibowitz, the Kaminetz Rosh Yeshivah, paid to the Chofetz Chaim, before the former embarked on a fundraising trip to the US. “I’m not an orator,” Rav Boruch Ber said to the elderly sage. “How should I get my message across?”

The Chofetz Chaim answered, “Read and translate the tefillah of Ahavah rabbah to your audience — that’s all you need to do. Explain it line by line and tell them how precious our Torah is to us. They will get the message.”

“This visit is not just about money,” thundered Rabbi Wachsman. “Our gedolim came to teach us what the Ahavah rabbah of the avreichim in Eretz Yisrael is all about. It’s their dream and aspiration. It’s what they live and breathe. They have gone above and beyond,” concluded Rabbi Wachsman, “and we need to do the same.”

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1023)