In short order, Joe of Lefty’s Sports Academy made a donation “in honor of the Clifton Cheder”

Living Higher

N

ew Jersey’s Clifton Cheder runs an incentive program for boys in the upper grades to finish shnayim mikrah v’echad targum. Age-appropriate portions of the parshah are assigned to each grade (with the oldest boys assigned the entire parshah). Upon the completion of each sefer of Chumash, the boys who finish their portions are rewarded with a special trip.

When the boys finished Sefer Bereishis, arrangements were made for them to go to Lefty’s Sports Academy, a batting-cage center located a short drive from the school. The trip to Lefty’s has become de rigueur for the Clifton Cheder boys, and a school administrator emailed Joe LeCarro, the owner of the facility, to lock in a time and date.

Joe soon responded, saying he would be happy, as always, to host the school’s wonderful students, but he added one condition. He asked that the school send him a link so that he could donate the amount of the school’s fee to assist Israeli citizens. The gratified administrator sent Joe a link to Agudath Israel’s Israel Relief Fund and in short order, Joe of Lefty’s Sports Academy made a donation “in honor of the Clifton Cheder.”

Joe didn’t ask the school to reimburse him, either — effectively making two donations, one to the school and another for Israel’s needy. The Cheder boys had a great time at the batting cages that week, and the kiddush Hashem that resulted from their behavior was a home run.

HAPPENING IN Jackson, NJ

This Tu B’Shevat marked a grim milestone: Ori ben Einav Efrat Danino, a young man being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, turned 26.

Ori’s mother, Einav Danino, spent that day in the Tristate area, courtesy of Yaakov and Jenine Shwekey, who had met her when they were in Israel after Succos, touring IDF bases and visiting families of hostages. Over the course of her stay in the US, Ms. Danino spoke to many women and attended challah bakes, sharing her message of faith even as she was living through a mother’s worst nightmare.

Ori had managed to escape the Nova music festival on October 7, but after he was out of danger, he went back to see if he could save his friends — and was captured by Hamas.

When Shifra Cymet, a Lakewood relator, found out that Ms. Danino’s visit coincided with Ori’s birthday, she arranged a small gathering in her father’s shul, K’hal Tiferes Yisroel in Jackson. Women gathered to hear Ori’s mother share her story, emunah, and breathtaking love for Hashem.

“I never question Hashem, I thank Him every morning,” she said. “I thank Him for the nisayon.”

For her part, Ms. Danino was touched to hear about the kabbalos the Lakewood women had accepted as a zechus for Ori ben Einav Efrat and the other hostages.

Their “birthday party“ included live music and a kumzitz. The women presented Ori’s mother a birthday cake — which she photographed, so she could show her son, after his release (may it be very soon), that even some 5,000 miles away, Jews he’d never met were davening and taking on zechusim for his freedom.

The Lens

Products from the Olive Wood Shop, located in a tiny studio on Jerusalem’s Rechov Meah Shearim 8, have become familiar in frum communities the world over. Last week, a new stock item — charging devices — were spotted, reminding us that even in this era of technological advances, the messages from those charming brushstrokes depicting Yerushalayim ring true.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 997)