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Home
and Family
Be Our Guest Through Bnos Yehudis --
A New Shabbos Placement Gemach for Single Girls
The Family Section has, in the past, suggested to families to
be aware of those singles/ widows/ loners in their
neighborhood and to remember to invite them for Shabbos
meals, early in the week or even a week in advance, and give
them the security of having a warm home atmosphere for the
coming Shabbos. Try, if you can, to imagine that sinking
feeling of dejection and rejection of a single girl having
summoned up her courage to wangle an invitation for a Shabbos
meal -- only to be refused for some reason or another. She
may not call that number again. And when this happens week
after week, after a while she may just give up calling
anyone, and make her own lone Shabbos at home or with a
roommate. The problem is much more acute with single girls
than yeshiva bochurim from abroad. They are disconnected.
BNOS YEHUDIS is a new gemach trying to circumvent this
very problem and enrich both hosts and guests with the mutual
experience of sharing a Shabbos table. Many families would
have no problem making room at the table for a girl or two,
but can't be bothered with initiating the invitation, don't
have a number to call, and if they do, one phone call is not
usually enough to make the connection.
Chaya, who has experienced the frustration of Shabbos
placement, feels that the structure of a gemach could
solve this problem admirably. The idea is very simple. She
envisions headquarters -- a listing and someone to make the
connection -- in every Jerusalem neighborhood, and, of
course, when the idea catches on, this can spread to every
neighborhood where there are concentrations of
chareidim. The girls call up and ask for a placement,
and need not go through the embarrassment of a "no". Families
are approached to take in a girl for a meal or two, and feel
free to say, "Not this week, sorry, full house," or "our boys
are in from yeshiva" or something of the sort, and give a
rain check. They don't have to provide sleeping quarters and,
you never know, maybe these singles can also become doubles
(shidduchim, of course).
TO BEGIN WITH: Chaya already has connections in Maalot Dafna,
Sorotzkin area and Har Nof. Her pen is poised to fill both
sides of the ledger -- girls and host families. Call her at
night between 8:30 - 11:00 at 02-6528206. Have her register
you today! Messages can be left.
BNOS YEHUDIS is in the memory of Yehudis Klekner, o.b.m., a
woman whose home was always open for the singles in her
neighborhood.
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