Healing from Within

Chani, the oldest of 11, comes from a chassidish family in Boro Park, and was a model student and obedient daughter. Her teenage years hit her hard, though, and she found herself in a deep depression. Her short marriage didn’t last. She attempted suicide several times and found herself in a psych ward. By the time she got out, she had lost all connections to Judaism.

Moshe and Chani are just two examples of hundreds of cases that have come our way in the last seven years. I’m not a mental health professional, but my work as a kiruv professional has led me to discover that the two are sometimes inextricably intertwined.

My own teshuvah story has inspired my passion for kiruv. When I was eight years old, a father in my school went crazy and killed both of his children and himself. This tragedy made me question my purpose in life and eventually led me to Yiddishkeit. After becoming frum, I was privileged to influence my entire family to join me. After that, I set myself a goal to bring the beauty of Judaism to all secular Jews.

While working in traditional kiruv organizations for years, I discovered that most non-frum Jews have very negative perceptions of Orthodox Jews, and these prior beliefs prevent them from exploring Torah learning and observance. It seemed to me that the missing link in the kiruv movement was to improve people’s associations with Orthodoxy. I just didn’t know how to deliver accurate information at first.