Search
Close this search box.

The $18 donation that Helped Save a Life


Please Partner with Aleph in saving lives. Every dollar will be tripled.
Charidy.com/Aleph

Aleph was founded at the express direction of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, in 5741/1981.

 

The
post of a mother, left in the comments on a previous Aleph charidy
campaign, along with an 18$ donation, caught the attention of several
Aleph staff:   

 

“To my son, suffering from the disease of addiction, may you find your inner spark and know that you are loved.”

 

Her
only child, whom she brought up as a single parent working long hours,
was languishing in a county jail, facing years in prison. He was an
addict who was
entrapped in a vicious cycle of drug abuse and incarceration.  

 

On
the night before team members of Aleph’s Project Tikvah reached out to
Jonathan’s mom, Jonathan turned to G-d in his prison cell, and prayed
desperately
for a miracle.

 

Project
Tikvah, a branch of The Aleph Institute focused on youth who are in
prison due to addiction/mental illness, worked tirelessly to advocate
within the
court system for an alternative sentence for Jonathan*, and helped
secure a bed for him at Chabad Treatment Center (CTC). Together, with
immense support from Jonathan’s mother and a support system put into
place by Aleph and CTC, Jonathan turned his life around
and has now been clean for over a year B”H. He is now employed, B”H and
has been working for a printing company for several months while his
life continues to get back on track.

This
year, Jonathan is proud to be on the other side, volunteering his own
time for Aleph’s charidy campaign so that others can get the same second
chance at
life that he got.

 

Jonathan’s mother recently wrote the following to Aleph:

 

It
was my broken heart, crushed by my son’s struggle with addiction and my
grandson in foster care, that finally shattered me. My neshamah had had
it. I was done. I prayed for it to
be over. The shame and isolation that gets the addict also gets hold of
the family. My bitter tears and painful screaming did not stop the
endless grief process for my addicted child. I didn’t want him to die.

I
felt the desperation that I could lose my entire family. I picked up
the phone to make the last call I was ever going to make to try to help
my son. I called Chabad Treatment Center
in Los Angeles. I was led to Aleph and pleading for assistance, they
helped my son get released into treatment there.

For
the first time in over a decade of addiction, my son has been free of
drugs for over a year. I get to hug my son without glass between us. He
knows he is loved. That is all I wanted.

No
momma should have to bury their child. Sadly, many do. It is our
responsibility as Jews to save a life. I plead with the Jewish Community
to help Aleph continue saving lives and reuniting
families. No one alone, no one forgotten.

 

B”H, Jonathan’s story is in no stretch an isolated incident.

 

Aleph
recently received a moving message from Jacob* (whose great grandfather
was a world famous Rabbi who selflessly and tirelessly saved many, many
lives
during the Holocaust through bribing the Nazis). Jacob remembers coming
 home from school every day, anxious to find out if his mother (who was
very ill) was still alive. After he witnessed her die, at age 16, Jacob
slipped into a deep depression and began
a vicious cycle of drugs, prison, psych wards and homelessness. His
bereaved father watched, painfully and powerlessly, as his precious son
deteriorated before his eyes.

 

One
Friday afternoon, the director of Aleph’s Project Tikvah got an urgent
call. Jacob was being discharged from detox and he had nowhere to go.
Within hours
the director was able to secure a bed for him at the Chabad Treatment
Center.

 

Aleph’s
team worked closely with Chabad Treatment Center (where lives are saved
on a daily basis) to provide comprehensive spiritual and emotional
support
to Jacob for over a year, including ongoing support from Aleph
volunteers and mentors and critical financial
assistance to ensure Jacob could continue to have whatever he needed to
turn his life around. Thank G-d, today he is clean and thriving! There
are no words to describe the joy this brought to his father.

 

Jacob’s
recent message, which speaks for itself, is a testament to the impact
of those who generously support and partner with Aleph/Project Tikvah.

 

“I’d
like to go around  the country speaking on behalf of what you guys did
that helped change my life and got me to where I’m at today, which is
becoming a drug counselor and living a life of sobriety
beyond belief and it wouldn’t have happened without the Aleph
Institute.”

 

Please
help Aleph respond to the cries of so many young lives – and their
desperate families. Aleph is currently running a Charidy campaign. Every
dollar
you give during this campaign will be tripled BEH. Please help us reach
out goal. May HASHEM bless you many times over!

 

Please watch these videos to see an inside look into the work Aleph does around the world:
https://vimeo.com/302346340
 and
https://vimeo.com/302348211
 




Leave a Reply


Popular Posts