By: L. Halevi

Malky lived a life of unimaginable pain. Hundreds, if not thousands, of pure, innocent children, are living in the same pain. Some are just starting to feel it, some are knee-deep in it, and unfortunately, some are at the hopeless end of their battle, ready to accept defeat.

How does a pure soul like Malky end up in such a dark place?

How does someone as special as Malky end up losing her life to the perils of substance abuse?

More importantly, what are we, as a community, doing to help the thousands of Malkys in our community that need our love, acceptance, understanding and assistance now before they have no choice but to find substances to dull their pain?

The answer is soul-searching, intellectual honesty and most of all proper education. Education for parents, teachers, mentors, and education for a community.

Yedidyah is an organization in Eretz Yisroel that has developed a Torah-based approach that provides early intervention in a positive way that assists thousands of children and teens to better deal with many of the issues of our time. Yedidyah was founded by Rav Yechiel Jacobson, author of the best-selling book, “ Al Techetu BaYeled – Do Not Sin Against The Child”,  with the blessing of HaRav Yechezkael Abramsky Zatzal, and continues to operate quietly with the support and encouragement of Gedolim from all facets of Yiddishkeit.

The professionals at Yedidyah have no agenda, and work to help children appreciate themselves, understand their minds bodies and souls in a non-pressurized way that doesn’t use Yiddishkeit as a forced way of compliance, rather gives the children an appreciation for Yiddishkeit from within themselves. It highlights the beauty of belonging, the beauty of emunah and closeness to Hashem.

Yedidyah works closely with parents, schools, Mechanchim and mechanchos, via seminars and other learning and teaching tools, to provide proper education and guidance to foster  a sense of acceptance and belonging to each and every Yiddishe Neshama, regardless of  their personal life obstacles or learning disabilities.

In Malky’s memory, her family wants to bring Yedidyah to the USA, to establish a branch that will help schools, parents and the community at large to reach every child, before the pain overtakes them. 

Harav Naftoli Horowitz, shlita (Krula Rebbe), Harav Avrohom Chaim Steinwurzel, shlita (Rav D’kehal Mateh Efraim and Rosh Yeshiva Shaarei Yosher) and Malky’s parents R’ Avreimie & Rivka Klein, have launched the project to raise the necessary funds to launch a Yedidyah branch in the USA. They have reached 75% of their goal, and need help reaching the finish line. The campaign page can be viewed  at www.unidy.org/malky

Malky’s life was filled with pain and is no more. Doing what needs to be done to avoid more unnecessary tragedies will give some meaning to Malky’s passing and transform her pain into impactful change in our community in a real and meaningful way.

***

Postscript:

 The Seforim say that 30 days before a person departs this world, the Neshama feels it.

This past Erev Shavuos, Malky was in California- where she stayed with a wonderful family to escape the difficulties she felt more acutely in NY – and she called her father saying that she wants to buy her mother a gift. “She does so much for me, and I don’t do anything for her” Malky said.

She wanted to purchase a very expensive diamond bracelet from Cartier. Her father acquiesced, saying that they are deserving, his wife deserved to receive the gift and his Malky deserved to buy it for her.

After it was purchased, she said she wanted to write something. Her father offered to take her to buy a Hallmark card. She didn’t want a card. She wanted a paper to write a long letter. She sat in her room in California, together with her younger sister who was there for Shavuos, and she cried bitter tears as she wrote the letter.

After Malky’s passing, her sister asked her mother to see that letter. “I didn’t see what she wrote while she wrote it, but to see the scene of her bitterly crying as she wrote it, I knew it was something special and powerful”. Indeed, it was beyond incredible. She wrote how grateful she was to her mother. She wrote that he gift wasn’t just for this Yom Tov, it was for all the Yomim Tovim. It wasn’t for this birthday, it was for all her mother’s birthdays. It was years of pent up emotion, all expressed in one heartfelt letter. In a sense, it was her farewell letter to her mother expressing her love for being there, for always trying, for always supporting her.

It was her way of telling her parents that she knew that they did right by her, and that she will love them eternally, regardless where her life took her and when her life on this earth ended.  She specifically asked that the bracelet be engraved with an expression of her love, and even after she left this world, that reminder is still there, as a sort of sign to her parents that she is no longer in pain and they should cherish her in death despite the fact that she never cherished herself in life.

Every child’s Neshama is a priceless diamond bracelet; Let’s make sure they feel it inside and out!

To give meaning to Malky’s death and be a part of the solution, visit www.Unidy.org/Malky

To read “Powerful Lessons in Malky’s Unbearable Pain: Part 1“ Click Here