'“In 2001 when I began my ten-year incarceration in a US state prison I was 38 years old and all alone. My wife divorced me I was court-ordered not to have any further contact with my children and even my own parents were far away from me. For my first 13 months in a cell that I shared with an anti-Semite who made no effort to befriend me I was in the dark. All I had was Hashem.”

Eliezer takes me back over a decade ago to a time in his life so depressing there are scarcely words to describe it. He is guilty of a crime he acknowledges was worthy of serious punishment and in need of teshuvah. As he puts it “I’m a good man but I did a terrible thing.” Alone in his cell with everyone he ever called a friend or loved one disowning him Eliezer had plenty of time to think to regret and to do the only thing he knew to do from such a dark place — to pray. The only problem was although Jewish by birth Eliezer scarcely knew what it meant to be a practicing Jew.

“My parents were typical American Jews not religious” he explains. “They joined the Orthodox synagogue because the synagogue offered something of need to my brother but they didn’t practice anything.” When Eliezer married he and his wife a convert agreed to raise their children Jewish but neither really knew what that meant. Eliezer didn’t keep kosher or observe the Sabbath. So when he landed in a state prison cell alone and abandoned with no friends or family visiting or calling or checking in on him it’s not surprising that he responded to an offer that came to him through the Aleph Institute to find him a Jewish pen pal.

“My parents were typical American Jews not religious” he explains. “They joined the Orthodox synagogue because the synagogue offered something of need to my brother but they didn’t practice anything.” When Eliezer married he and his wife a convert agreed to raise their children Jewish but neither really knew what that meant. Eliezer didn’t keep kosher or observe the Sabbath. So when he landed in a state prison cell alone and abandoned with no friends or family visiting or calling or checking in on him it’s not surprising that he responded to an offer that came to him through the Aleph Institute to find him a Jewish pen pal.

Aleph Institute whose corporate headquarters is in Florida has a tagline: “We take care no matter where.” Over the last 30 years under Lubavitch direction and guidance the dedicated staff and volunteers of Aleph have focused their energies on Jewish servicemen and on the Jewish men and women who are languishing in prisons all over America rejected and scorned and very much alone. They care for thousands of prisoners in addition to their spouses children and parents left behind on the “outside.”