Tzedaka Fund for Aaron

With both joy and sorrow, I am announcing the launch of a tzedaka [charity] fund in Aaron's memory. Debbie and I have been working with Chai Lifeline for the past several weeks to bring this to reality. Details are in the letter that was just mailed out, replicated below. The letter went to our entire community and personal mailing list; with this, I now include my blog friends as well.

May this Purim bring us joy and may we all know no more sorrow.
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For the past several months, our family has tried to cope with a tragedy beyond our ability to understand or even describe; the loss of our beloved son Aaron (Aharon Elimelech) z’l at the age of eighteen. Aaron passed away suddenly on May 16, 2005, only three days after a massive brain tumor was discovered. We accept that we will never be able to comprehend Hashem’s ways, but our days are filled with longing for Aaron and remembrances of a very special young man.

As a zechus [merit] for Aaron’s neshama [soul] and in an effort to build something positive following the horror of losing a child, we have decided to work with Chai Lifeline, the international children’s health support organization, to establish a special tzedaka fund in Aaron’s name. The fund will benefit H.E.L.P., Homebound Education and Learning Program. This wonderful program currently provides tutoring in Judaic studies for children and teens who must be out of school for extended periods of time due to illness. With our aid, we hope to bolster the existing program and also expand it to meet the needs of siblings in families with a terminally ill child or who have lost a child. We know from personal experience that such children often require tremendous extra support in order to recuperate mentally and emotionally from their family’s shattering experience.

We chose this program not only to honor Aaron’s own academic achievements and love of learning, but because we discovered – from numerous testimonials by his classmates after his passing – that he had quietly tutored many of his fellow-students in a variety of subjects throughout high school. We find it very comforting to think that H.E.L.P. will provide the assistance to those children most in need – the seriously ill and their siblings, and the bereaved – that Aaron had given so freely to his schoolmates.

We hope you will join us at a reception on Sunday May 7 [time TBD] at Congregation Ohav Emeth, 415 Raritan Avenue, Highland Park, for the inauguration of the Aaron Rosenfeld Memorial Fund at Chai Lifeline. This date falls one day after Aaron’s first yahrzeit. It will be a time to look back with love, and to look forward with hope for what the future will bring.

Please help us memorialize a wonderful son, grandson, brother and friend by attending this event and contributing to the Aaron Rosenfeld Memorial Fund. We can never bring Aaron back, but we can help assure his values, chesed, and good deeds will be remembered forever.

We look forward to seeing you on May 7.