The stories that trickle in to the Kupat Ha’Ir office might shock you: large families of children abandoned after car accidents, kallahs living on the streets, and cancer patients without money for their next treatment.

Their office is famously downstairs from the entrance to Rav Chaim Kanievsky’s Bnei Brak home, and the Rav is reportedly closely involved in many of the charity’s campaigns.

One campaign of note seeks to marry off 40 individuals who have lost parents, this month alone. It is an ambitious task. The stories of the brides and grooms range from sad to devastating. One story of a kallah represents just one possible scenario in a tapestry of pain:

“Chana”* was homeless, living with her non-Jewish parents, and longing for more. After a series of miraculous events, she converted to Judaism and found herself learning in seminary in Jerusalem. Her parents have passed away. Now she is engaged and longs to start a Jewish family of her own. With barely a penny to her name, she faces almost certain humiliation.

“Chana,” however, has some hope for the future: Rav Chaim Kanievsky has taken personal responsibility for this month’s group of orphans, even penning a letter giving a powerful bracha to all who donate: ““Those who donate … to the forty orphans who will be married in Cheshvan 5779, will merit, measure for measure, to make a simchah soon in their own homes.”

Those who are able to help the orphans get married with dignity can do so here.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL CAMPAIGN

*Details have been changed to preserve the orphans’ privacy.