As we stood at Har Sinai, the experience flooded senses; we saw the thunder, heard the lightning. The lightning fades, but the sudden burst of clarity takes you forward. Six women share a moment that illuminated their path
My husband, Abby, came home from shul one evening and told me that the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel, an organization sponsored by Agudath Israel of America, was urgently seeking women to travel to the former Soviet Union. The minimum commitment was ten days, and my husband asked if I’d consider it. Oh, and we would be incommunicado for almost the entire time. (Describing this to a generation who thinks “instant” is too long makes me feel prehistoric.)
I swallowed hard and said yes. I spend more time trying to decide what color shoes to wear in the morning than I did on that decision to travel alone to a hostile country.
Rabbi and Mrs. Mordechai and Alice Neustadt ran the problem. My first phone conversation with Mrs. Neustadt went something like this. “You know,” she began, “each of our shlichim has to be prepared to lose a few pounds.”
I offered to stay for a month.
Her enthusiasm was infectious, and I was soon scheduled to leave a week and a half later.
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