Close to 150 attendees participated in Just One Life’s annual evening, held at the Bergenfield home of Rachel and Azi Mandel and chaired by the Mandels together with Sheryl and Aaron Liberman. The evening featured Rabbi Bini Maryles, director of Just One Life in Israel, two moving videos reflecting the work of the organization and an inspiring address by internationally renowned Torah speaker Harav Yissocher Frand.
Held during the Nine Days, memorializing the destruction of our two Batei Mikdash, the event aimed to support JOL’s mission of ensuring the continuation of vital and healthy Jewish life in Jerusalem and throughout Israel. The first video reinforced the mission, through moving testimonials by young children through young adults, some serving in the IDF and doing their national service, all paying tribute to the efforts made on behalf of their families by JOL in times of great need. The second video, taken during a visit by Carole and Jack Forgash, founders and chairpersons of JOL, during a recent trip to Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter, featured 12 young children, ages 2 through 6, jubilantly singing the strains of “Torat Hashem Temima,” accompanied by makeshift instruments. For Jack Forgash, watching the exuberance of these children was the greatest endorsement of his and JOL’s devoted staff’s work in making sure that the streets of Yerushalayim resound with the sweet sounds of happy, young children.
Rabbi Martin Katz, longtime executive vice president of Just One Life U.S.A., introduced Rabbi Bini Maryles, newly appointed director of JOL Israel. Rabbi Maryles and family made aliyah from North Woodmere to Chashmonaim four years ago. While growing up in Flatbush, Maryles was very aware of the existence of an organization that facilitated thousands of births in Israel through the involvement of his parents and aunt and uncle in JOL. He remembers being present at Rabbi Frand’s capacity-crowd presentations at the Young Israel of Flatbush on behalf of JOL. Maryles sees joining JOL’s administration as “an opportunity to take an organization that had already done so much for so many here in Israel and share that mission with more people around the country who need an assist. It is also an opportunity to share this mission with the next generation of supporters around the world.”
When asked about what he envisions are areas of potential growth for the organization, Maryles offered, “We hope to expand our scope of services by partnering with any other individuals or organizations that can offer a service to our clients that we cannot provide, be it corporate, social or communal. We are also hoping to expand the scope of our geographic client base. We firmly believe that there are many more families in distant parts of the country that are not being serviced. To this end, we are placing ‘people on the ground’ in strategic locations throughout the country which will serve as ‘satellite’ venues for JOL’s services.”
Maryles added, “We are working on deepening the impact of our work with each woman and her family so that their lives remain better and brighter as they transition to different stages. It is our goal to help them onto a better path whereby they can make life decisions from a place of strength, knowledge and support rather than ambivalence and misinformation.”
The attendees were then treated to words of chizuk and inspiration by Harav Yissocher Frand, longtime advocate and friend of JOL, who spoke about the model JOL has been setting forth for over 30 years in showing care for their brothers and sisters in times of anguish, stress, poverty, sickness and confusion.
To learn more about the projects of Just One Life and to contribute to the organization, visit www.justonelife.org.
By Pearl Markovitz
