Rabbi Bochner and Rabbi Ginzberg did more than just cry outover the plight of Klal Yisrael’s singles
When Rabbi Chaim Aryeh Zev Ginzberg walked into the Armon Hotel in Stamford, CT, for the Ohel Sarala shabbaton last week, he was overwhelmed by the sight of hundreds of single young women who had gathered from around the country and beyond — and that was without shadchanim mingling through the crowds or circulating lists of potential shidduchim.
“They came because they knew we care about them, that we’re validating their pain,” says Rabbi Ginzberg, cofounder of the organization as a zechus for his daughter Sarala a”h, after she passed away in 2015 when she was just 17. “We remind them how special they are to Hashem and to Klal Yisrael. We want to restore the dignity of these girls while at the same time making sure their plight is part of the public debate.”
The seeds of Ohel Sarala, which pairs up young single women in prayer with couples struggling with infertility, were actually originally planted by Bonei Olam founder and trailblazer Rabbi Shlomo Bochner and Rav Aharon Leib Steinman ztz”l, with whom Rabbi Bochner shared a close relationship.
Rabbi Shlomo and Chanie Bochner, a Bobover chassidish couple from Boro Park, channeled the pain of empty arms and two decades of treatments, connections, and experience to help thousands of childless couples build their families. Since the first Bonei Olam baby was born in 1999, the organization, with multiple branches around the world, has been at the forefront of genetic research and fertility assistance to challenged couples, and even to those to whom doctors could offer no hope.
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