“MAZEL TOV! MAZEL TOV!”

Mrs. X smiles broadly as she accepts the warm wishes. Who would imagine that the smile recognized as the kind reserved for joy and nachas accompanying a daughter’s engagement is actually a cover-up for thoughts associated with the all-consuming worry: where in the world will we be able to come up with the means to shoulder all the expenses related to Sarah’s chasunah?!

While hachnosas kallah has always been at the center of tzedaka-giving, the current unstable economy has intensified the very need. These days, there are many, many families who struggle with the same desperate question -“where in the world will we be able to come up with the means to shoulder all the expenses related to the chasunah?”

Nation-wide – particularly within the tri-state area – it is the compassion of Chasdei Chashie L’Kallah that responds to the call.

Initially established by the Weiss children as a zechus for their seriously ill parents, Rabbi Zev and Mrs. Chashie Weiss a”h. , Chasdei Chashie L’Kallah began modestly by helping a select number of local kallahs. With the tragic petira of both mother and father, one shortly after the other, it became the expanding vehicle of chesed, liluy nishmasom, perpetuating the qualities which defined a home that excelled in loving kindness even in the face of unspeakable heartbreak and challenge.

Today, the legacy of Rabbi and Mrs. Weiss lives on in Chasdei Chashie L’Kallah. Providing the very basic furnishings – quality mattresses, box springs, and dinette sets – to those who would have otherwise been forced to do without on the very threshold of what should be the happiest moments of their lives, Chasdei Chashie L’Kallah’s assistance extends to those needy young couples from around the country and beyond that settle in the Lakewood, New York and the tri-state vicinity.

Working with little overhead and no paid employees, Chasdei Chashie L’Kallah’s dedicated volunteers work quietly, discreetly and quickly to do background checks and ensure that the organization’s recipients’ receive the furniture in time for move-in date – all the while preserving their dignity. In many cases, the chasanim, kallahs, and even their parents have no idea where all the chesed is actually coming from!

“Marrying off a child can be the most beautiful time and the most difficult,” pens a parent of a kallah. “The emotions. The tiredness. And the finances…”

“There is nothing that can describe the overwhelming feeling of vulnerability that I had been going through,” writes another parent of a kallah. ” Just as I was about to marry off my fifth child, I was laid off from my work. For me, the simcha began to take the form of many nights of sleeplessness, anguish and intense worry…”

“I had nothing,” depicts a young woman. “Both my family as well as my choson’s family did not have the means to help us set up our home. I had no idea where I would get simple beds. Then you appeared! After receiving the basic furniture with which to begin our lives, my emotions let loose.  Tears of joy and relief suddenly began coursing down my cheeks!”

Who else are the Chasdei Chashie L’Kallah recipients?

Chasdei Chashie L’Kallah’s recipients could be anyone. They could be your friends, your neighbors. They could even be your own relatives…. Indeed, those that show a smile on the outside and greet you amiably as if they had not a care in the world, may very well be crumbling under the financial pressures of marrying off a child.

From Lakewood, to New York and Monsey; from Chicago to Los Angeles and Denver; from Cleveland to Detroit and Toronto… the list goes on.

Show your Ahavas Yisroel, partner with Chasdei Chashie L’Kallah – the incredible legacy of Rabbi Zev and Chashie Weiss – and help make your fellow yid’s simcha really complete by furnishing the basics of yet another Bayis Ne’eman b’Yisroel.

It is only with your continued assistance that Chasdei Chashie can further its holy work. Hurry, you can still order, the auction drawing will take place this Motzei Shabbos 1/16/16. To donate, call 718-253-1627 or visit, www.helpakallah.org or email at [email protected]