A wonderful and inspiring story.
Alex Cornish from Issaquah WA is currently studying at Hadar H’Torah Yeshiva in New York. Because of the war currently raging in Israel, he could not return to Mayont in Jerusalem. Last Friday, he went on Mivtziem in a park near Crown Heights • Full Article
Alex Cornish from Issaquah WA is currently studying at Hadar H’Torah Yeshiva in New York. Because of the war currently raging in Israel, he could not return to Mayont in Jerusalem.
Last Friday, he went on Mivtziem in a park near Crown Heights. He went around among people and suggested that they put on tefillin. In the park there is an area where people sit and play on chess tables. He approached everyone who looked Jewish and he offered them to put on tefillin. One of those who was playing chess pointed him in the direction of someone who was old, and told him he is Jewish and will soon be 102 years old. He suggest that he would put on Tefillin. Alex approached the Jew, and asked him Are you Jewish, the Jew answered him, that he used to be a Jew, but he is no longer Jewish. Alex continued to ask him if he wanted to put on a tefillin. The old Jew did not respond. So Alex suggested he play chess (Alex is a chess champion)
The old Jew agreed to the game, and Alex added on the condition that if he (Alex) wins, he will agree to put on tefillin with him. The Jew did not respond. And so the game began, and within ten minutes Alex beat him. The Jew rolled up his sleeve and showed him the number from Auschwitz. He told him, that the last time he saw his father was when they were playing chess. Since then he doesn’t want to remember or know anything about Judaism. And he added, in two weeks I will be celebrating my 102nd birthday. But the deal must be respected. The elderly Jew rolled up his sleeves, and for the first time in his life he put on a tefillin… Bar Mitzvah at the age of almost 102…💜
In an emotional phone call, Alex told how he connected the Parsha of the week, Avraham Avino was circumcised at the age of 99 – and this Jew is doing a Bar Mitzvah at the age of 102
I was actually in Mayanot with that guy. His dad is a big guy in Amazon, and Alex decided to become Religious himself and his family didnt. He went to the extent that in order to keep kosher, he had one of his own pots in his room and made every meal out of that and couldn’t eat with his family and all. Alex Kernish
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