They say there are six degrees of separation.
In the Jewish community, it’s more like three.
When Jews initially interact with each other, the questions asked usually tend to relate back to well-played games of Jewish geography. More often than not it is discovered that they have a friend/acquaintance in common, or in some instances, are even distantly related. Either way, the Jewish community is intrinsically connected. That is one of the reasons why we can feel so joyful for each other at happy occasions and utterly devastated in times of sorrow.
When Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist, HY”D was killed, it was the latter. While the 21-year-old sergeant was originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, his grandparents, Miriam and Irv Klavan live in Teaneck. He grew up in the thriving Anglo community of Bet Shemesh and attended Yeshivat Shaalvim. He was also a talented woodworker, a hobby he had taken up around the time of his bar mitzvah that morphed into a genuine skill. “He started with a woodworking class for kids when he was 12 years old,” said his brother-in-law, Yaakov Wolff. “He learned very quickly, he taught himself things on YouTube, by fooling around.” However, even at the young age of 14, he was building and assembling for his family and community, from sukkah decks to IKEA furniture. “He had a very good hand and he was a mensch, people appreciated that, even though he was 14, 15 years old.” Over the years he built shtenders, mechitzas, a sukkah deck, an aron, and the partitions for his shul, Kehillat Nofei Hashemesh, headed by Rabbi Shalom Rosner.
That’s why it is so fitting that the Zimbalist family raised funds to build the shul’s beit midrash in memory of Eli Moshe. In his beautiful eulogy, Rabbi Rosner said the following, “Hashem is getting ready to bring down the Beis Hamikdash hashlishi and He needs someone to help Him build it. There’s no one more fitting or deserving to be Hashem’s partner than Eli Mo, the greatest builder in our generation.” In less than 30 days, over 1,000 Jews from Israel, America and the United Kingdom—family, friends, and strangers—were able to raise the necessary amount of $500,000 for Eli Moshe in an online campaign titled, “Build for Eli Mo.”
“It really means a lot to the family. It’s very heartwarming,” said Wolff. The building is expected to begin in September—an unheard of accomplishment in the bureaucratic-laden city of Bet-Shemesh—and aims to be completed by the first yahrezit. In regards to the overall successful campaign, Wolff said, “We’re happy that people were able to express their love and support and really take this tragedy and turn it into something good for klal Yisrael.”
The Zimbalist family is currently raising money for a bonus goal of $50,000. To donate please click here: https://causematch.com/elimo
Sara Cohen is a Jewish Link summer intern and an English major at Yeshiva University. You can reach her at [email protected].
