Please join in helping the father of a young Jewish girl who is currently stuck in limbo between two worlds: one where she is encouraged to appreciate Judaism and one where she is told to despise it.
After a short marriage which ended due to irreconcilable differences, the mother took their then baby back to America from Israel. This meant that the father also had to move back to America if he wanted to see his daughter. Wanting to be there for his daughter he happily obliged.
After moving back, he was under the impression that agreements that were made abroad would be honored state-side. However, the mother doesn’t respect many of the prior agreements – specifically those relating to Judaism. In addition, initial mistakes were also made in the divorce proceedings that are now having huge ramifications on the daily life of both the father and his daughter.
The father is a good, erlich man who cares very much about his daughter and makes every effort to be there for her. He works multiple jobs to be able to pay full child support along with his normal bills and expenses. In addition, he also has to cover many legal fees due to litigation against him by the mother.
Unfortunately, there are many ways that the mother is trying to hurt the father, including: actively and constantly trying to stop the daughter from receiving a Jewish education (even when with her father); encouraging the daughter not to keep shabbos and kashrus (“We don’t do that in this home!”); trying to alienate the daughter from the father and minimizing his parenting time; getting a judge to minimize the amount of time that the daughter can take off of school for Jewish holidays; and constantly trying to go back on previous agreements, such as agreeing to have the daughter to be educated in an Orthodox system, at minimum.
The father doesn’t ask for a lot. He wants to protect his daughter’s right to Jewish education at least once a week (especially when she is with him), he wants his daughter to have the right to be able to keep Shabbos and Kashrus without being mocked, and he wants to be able to spend a significant amount of the Yomim Tovim with his daughter – which is very important family time for him but is not as important for the mother who is not religious, at all.
Currently, the father is doing everything that he can. He has his daughter attend Jewish Sunday school on Zoom when she is with him, and he constantly guides her in the basic tenets of Judaism and encourages her to appreciate its beauty. He is also spending *all* of his hard earned money on constant legal battles initiated by the mom, whose efforts are concentrated on removing Jewish practice from the daughter’s life as much as possible and, of course, he is giving his daughter as much love and kindness as a good father can.
He needs your help. He has used all of his personal resources on legal costs relating to parenting agreements. He’s already in debt and the debt only continues to grow. He’s found a lawyer who is being very reasonable with his prices, however he still requires a substantial retainer + many billable hours.
Please open your hearts and give whatever you can – even if it’s just $1 – to help save the neshama of a young Jewish girl!
If you’re unable to give for whatever reason you can still help by sharing this link with everyone you know: https://bit.ly/3spO4cu
Thank you and may Hashem repay you with Parnasa, lots of Nachas and great health!
Please give the names of the child and father. Name and mothers name for prayer and to give to the rebbe for a bracha. His bracha made a big difference when i was young living with my mother who fought my observing kashrut and shabbos
He would like to keep his and his daughters name private.
Just donated. So sad.