It was a true night of lights and laughter as more than 600 women gathered on February 28 to celebrate friendship and help support a vital Jewish communal space, Mikvah Chana in Livingston.

This year’s annual event, which is open to women and high school girls and held at LifeTown, in Livingston, featured Aleeza Ben Shalom, aka the shadchan from the Netflix series “Jewish Matchmaking.” Ben Shalom shared her journey from living in the Philadelphia suburbs to Israel, and then starring in a streaming reality series. She also brought home the importance of observing the Jewish laws of family purity.

She recounted how one day she was supposed to go to the mikvah, but there was a snowstorm and some two feet of snow had piled up on the roads. When she called the mikvah attendant to set up an appointment, the woman told her there was no way to get there.

Ben Shalom was undaunted. She had a jeep and would get them both to the mikvah building, which she did with some help along the way from a plow driver and several other women who also wanted to use the mikvah that evening.

As she told the audience, when something is important to you, you find a way to make it happen. She then offered to take any woman who had not yet been to Mikvah Chana on a private tour. Several women took her up on her offer.

For much of the talk, Ben Shalom had the audience smiling and chuckling as she recounted her matchmaking attempts. There were, however, a few moments of seriousness at the beginning when she spoke about life right now in Israel and asked every woman in the audience with a cell phone—pretty much everyone in attendance—to turn on their flashlight and say, “We stand with Israel.” She promised to take the video and share it in Israel to give people there strength and let them know that the Jewish community in Livingston is supporting them.

Apropos of the evening’s guest speaker, the February 28 event also served as the launch of “Shidduch Club,” a new community effort to make matches for Jewish singles.

To learn more about Mikvah Chana, visit mikvahchana.com.

Faygie Holt is an award-winning journalist, whose articles have been published worldwide and translated into several different languages. She is also the author of two middle-grade book series for Jewish children, The Achdus Club and Layla’s Diaries, both available from Menucha Publishers. A third series is set to be released in 2024. Learn more at Faygieholt.com.