My Name is Itzik

A chosson with no family asks Am Yisrael to fill in

by KR

Itzik’s moving story just came to us via his request for help with his upcoming wedding. It’s the kind of story that, once again, makes us grateful that our Adopt a Wedding program exists.  

My name is Itzik. 
I am 32 years old and live in Yerushalayim. I’m the only child of Shmuel and Adina and for the first four years of my life, the three of us lived together as a family in Kfar Shmuel. But when I was five years old, my parents divorced and after a year of living with my mother, who was struggling with mental illness, I was sent by social services to a boarding school. By the time I turned 8, my mother’s condition had worsened and she was placed into a psychiatric hospital. 

Where was my father? At one point he remarried and I remember being excited about it. I thought, “Now I’ll have a home-a real home. No more living in a school for me.” But for some reason (I’m still not sure why) it didn’t happen. I wasn’t invited to join my father and his wife and I found myself, once again, without a real home, without a real family. My father had no interest in me, and for many years he never even saw me. My mother passed away five years ago and practically speaking I really had no parents for most of my life. I was always alone. Completely alone.

After everything I went through, I was zoche to become a baal tshuva and with the help of friends I began learning in yeshiva and I found my place in a wonderful school in Yerushalayim. The yeshiva became my home, even on Shabbat and holidays. Without the rabbanim and the talmidim I would have continued to be alone.

WIth chasdei Hashem I got engaged to a wonderful woman two months ago and our wedding is planned for just a few weeks from now. I am excited and happy that this time has come, yet I’m worried. I have nothing with which to make a wedding, no way to even begin.

I look forward to building a new life, a new real family, something I’ve never had. My dream is to continue learning, to become a Talmid Chacham and create a home filled with Torah. But to start on that path I have to ask for your help. 
I hope you, members of Am Yisrael, will, in some way, be able to take the place of my parents, to be there for me as a family would, and help me with wedding expenses so I can begin to build my bayit ne’eman b’Yisrael.

We can, Itzik. We can.

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