Like so many others, we are grappling with the painful situation in Israel. Hasidah was founded to help people who want to bring more life into this world. The violence that was enacted by Hamas against innocent Israelis seemed unfathomable, particularly to children and babies. Jewish history sadly has other similar examples – crusades, pogroms, the Holocaust and a host of other antisemitic incidents. That is no longer history. It is today.
There is one more history lesson that precedes them all. When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, their harshest punishment was when Pharoah ordered their newborn boys to be drowned. There is a beautiful midrash that tells how the Israelite women enacted their own form of resistance during slavery. They intimately enticed their husbands, after their hard days of forced labor, in order to continue to have babies.
The commitment to Jewish life, to a covenant passed from generation to generation, has been a part of the Jewish story from the beginning. The hope for the next generation sustains the Jewish people always and that will never change.
Dear Hasidah clients, in the face of the horrible news coming from Israel, we still see you. While the current situation is urgent and important, one pain does not diminish another. The yearning for a child does not go away in the face of terror or oppression. It may even have additional layers and meaning now. The desire to have a child is the ultimate show of resistance, resilience and hope.
To Hasidah donors, please give to organizations that directly support our brothers and sisters in Israel. Each of their lives is of infinite value. To pray for no more loss of life would be in vain; but we pray that the innocent be spared and that restored security in Israel comes swiftly. Hasidah will continue with the IVF grant cycle at the end of 2023 and we hope when the time comes, you will be able to support that too. We are committed to building Jewish families with on-going hope for the future.
Am Yisrael Chai!