A crippling Nor’easter that blanketed the greater New York
City area in snow and had states of emergency declared in both New York and New
Jersey was no match for the chesed of Klal Yisroel, as Misaskim and
Hatzolah Air worked together to deal with some rather unusual circumstances as
the mammoth winter storm raged on.
The events began Sunday night in tragedy, when 70 year old
Shulem Friedman of Boro Park passed away unexpectedly while vacationing in
South Florida with his wife and grandchildren.
With a punishing two day storm just beginning to wreak havoc in New York
and New Jersey, and the majority of flights coming in and out of JFK, Newark
and LaGuardia cancelled, arranging kevurah in Kiryas Joel was far from
simple.
The Jewish community’s well oiled chesed machine
swung into action, with Eli Rowe of Hatzolah Air volunteering to fly the niftar
home from Fort Lauderdale. It took hours
to find an airport that could accommodate the flight and was also within
driving distance of New York, and after considering locations in both
Washington D.C. and Virginia, a plan was finally put in place to land in Atlantic
City Airport late Monday morning, where the slightly warmer temperatures had
the precipitation hitting the ground as rain, not snow. Arrangements coordinated by Misaskim had
volunteers from Lakewood picking up the niftar and several accompanying
family membersat the Atlantic City airport and bringing them to a
Misaskim team from Brooklyn who were waiting for them at the Eatontown exit on
the Garden State Parkway. From there,
the family members and the niftar were taken to the Cheesequake Service
Area where a small levayah was held before the entire group was driven
by Misaskim volunteers from Kiryas Joel to Orange County for kevurah.
The trip in treacherous weather didn’t go exactly as
planned. Icy conditions on the Garden
State Parkway had the Lakewood Misaskim team transporting the niftar
skidding across four lanes of the highway, while a Misaskim vehicle from
Brooklyn traveling to the meeting point slid off the road and went down an
embankment. Thankfully, no one was hurt
in either of the two incidents and Mr. Friedman was brought to kever yisroel
without any further incident.
And yet the tragedy brought with it an opportunity for true
simcha. When word got out that Misaskim
volunteers from Lakewood and Brooklyn would be meeting on the Garden State Parkway,
a request came in for several Flatbush boys to be driven to Deal so that they
could attend their brother’s wedding, taking place just hours later. Ironically, the chosson and his siblings
were no strangers to Misaskim, becoming part of Misaskim’s Project Yedid this
past year after losing their father to COVID.
Misaskim founder and CEO Yanky Meyer noted that the idea
that Mr. Friedman was brought from Florida to kever yisroel in Kiryas
Joel within 24 hours, during a massive snowstorm, while a chosson and kallah
were able to start building their bayis ne’eman b’Yisroel with their
siblings present was truly remarkable and a testament to the dedication of everyone
involved.
“Whatever it is and whenever it happens, we are all here to
help,” said Meyer. “Seeing volunteers
coming out in this kind of weather on behalf of people they never even met to fulfill
the mitzvos of levayas hames and hachnasas kallah proves
what Klal Yisroel is all about. We have
no doubt that HaKadosh Baruch Hu was watching over us today, keeping us all
safe from harm.”