Citing the 2023 World Health Organization statistic, one in six men and women face infertility. In the Jewish community particularly, where lifecycle events and holidays revolve to a great extent around families with children, the loneliness engendered by infertility is compounded.
In 2015, during the third year of her infertility journey, Gila Muskin Block, with two friends sadly on the same journey, incorporated Yesh Tikva as a response to their conversations around the Shabbat table. Their primary impetus was the loneliness they were experiencing as family, friends and community did not “get” their plight. Calling the organization “Yesh Tikva,” There Is Hope, their mission was “to raise awareness and end the silence in the Jewish community while providing emotional support to those navigating infertility.”
Nine years later, Block, referred to as a “fertility warrior,” has expanded Yesh Tikva into a national organization providing professional emotional support to over 400 men and women throughout the U.S. Based in Los Angeles, Yesh Tikva hosts monthly virtual support groups for those navigating primary and secondary infertility, donor conception, as well as a men’s-only group. A peer mentoring program known as Fertility Friends has trained 98 mentors, 47 of whom have been paired with a mentee. Care packages are sent to participants during challenging calendar events such as Chanukah, Purim and Mother’s/Father’s Day. Tikva Talks offer lectures with mental health professionals, reproductive endocrinologists and lawyers on important topics relating to the fertility journey. Yesh Tikva provides an Infertility and Jewish Law Resource guiding patients through asking the necessary halachic questions to their doctors and clergy throughout all fertility treatments. Through the Mikvah Infertility Awareness Campaign women are assisted in increasing meaning in a ritual that can be painful due to its association with the loss of a cycle.
In pursuing its mission of sensitizing the community to issues relating to infertility, Yesh Tikva has prepared three cards with pointers on How to Support Your Child/Friend Facing Infertility and Five Phrases of Compassion to Keep in Mind.
For the past nine years, Yesh Tikva has implemented its Infertility Awareness Shabbat (IAS), an annual event that raises awareness of and sensitivity to infertility in the Jewish community. To date, over 200 synagogues and temples have partnered with Yesh Tikva “to enhance communal understanding and facilitate empathy for those who are struggling to build and grow their families.” The annual IAS is held shortly before Pesach, a time when families traditionally gather together to celebrate, which can be a particularly frustrating period for those experiencing infertility. Ahead of the Shabbat, Yesh Tikva puts together a resource packet for rabbis and communal leaders with guides, sensitivity suggestions and Jewish texts relating to the issue.
The 2024 IAS will be held April 11-14. Recommendations for this Shabbat are to have a meaningful conversation around the Shabbat table with friends about reproductive health and infertility. Host a mindful Shabbat meal and include those facing fertility struggles.
A third and ongoing suggestion for the IAS as well as for Shabbatot throughout the year is the #One Candle Initiative. Names of couples davening for the fulfillment of their dreams of becoming parents are shared confidentially with recipients. These recipients prepare a decorative candle holder with an unlit wick to place alongside their personal Shabbat candles. A specially composed tefillah is recited over the unlit candle. Hopefully, when the joyous news of the birth of a baby is received, the candle is lit. To date 122 names are on the tefillah list with 90 weekly list recipients.
More than 40 women attended the Yesh Tikva event in Bergenfield on the evening of March 4. It was hosted in the home of Efrat Ferber, daughter of Teaneck’s Tammy and Ken Secemski, proprietors of Glatt Express and Lazy Bean. Director of Development Jackie Loike and board members Michele Malkin and Dina Muskin Goldberg were present to attest to the success of the organization in supporting couples experiencing infertility through the “rough waters’’ of their journey. The evening culminated with the creation of decorative candle holders which were taken home by each participant to place on her Shabbat candle tray alongside a special tefillah.
Yesh Tikva has sponsored seven nationwide challah bakes and has hosted over 400 participants in its in-person events in Florida, California and New Jersey. It boasts a huge social media community of over 4,000 instagram followers.
Learn more about Yesh Tikva’s services by going to yeshtikva.org or emailing [email protected]. Follow Yesh Tikva on Instagram @yesh_tikva, Yesh Tikva on Facebook and LinkedIn, and on YouTube @yeshtikva6261.
