Hi Everyone,

I'm sitting in the Penn Medicine infusion center in NJ with my mother...she is getting chemo for the umpteenth time on the 5th type of magic concoction they've come up with. So far, they all haven't worked the way we hoped, but it doesnt mean we stop trying. And I'm so proud of her for finding the strength to keep going.

I was contemplating not running my fundraiser for SHIFRA this year, but it dawned on me that even through the exhaustion, both hers and mine, I have to do it.

I'm thinking about the SHIFRA moms and moms-to-be who don't have an amazing daughter like me (yet?!) to help them through their hard times, the times that challenge their children's very existence.

They come to us because they have no one else. We are their daughters and sons and mothers and communities, we are their family and they our achrayut, even when it's frustrating and annoying, absolutely draining, exhausting, and think we can't do more.

I am dedicating this year's fundraiser to the refuah shleima of my mother, Zellda Emek Tova bas Baila.

The need to help these other moms is at least equally important.

I looked up the laws of honoring parents and one of them is to help at least as much you would a friend. And as friends, sometimes that help can be outsourced with a donation to SHIFRA, so that the miracle workers there can channel your help in the ways these women need most.

~~

Since 2019, SHIFRA has helped more than 280 moms and babies and the calls keep coming. We need to buffer our coffers earlier this year, so that we can support every single one of them with the professional counseling, diapers, or lifetime parenting support she needs to make it through.

We've got their backs, because we are family, that's what we do and who we are. Am echad, lev echad.

Tizku l'mitzvot every day of our lives, in great health, happiness, and prosperity.

Love always,
Rivky