My Nonprofit Reviews

I've been involved with this wonderful organization since its inception. I personally have grown a great deal through the programs and staff members, and I've watched as many, many other women have grown in amazing ways over the years as well. One couldn't ask for a better nonprofit than this one!

I first met Devorah Benjamin at a very modest engagement party in a community hall. Both bride and groom were from poor families, so I understood she had helped make the party happen. She was cheerful, friendly, humble and unassuming, and I took an immediate liking to her as we sat and chatted about her fascinating work. I asked what had been the most difficult, challenging wedding she had ever helped to make. She told me it was the wedding of a young girl whose parents were adamantly opposed to her marrying a religious man, and were nasty about it. She held the girl's hand throughout the ceremony as the father kept on calling out loudly, "It's not too late -- you can still change your mind and back out of this marriage!" After I heard that story, I became a devoted fan of the organization. Shortly after that, I lost my husband. In the years following, Devorah has helped me marry off my son and my daughter, and helped me organize and plan another son's Bar Mitzvah. I didn't need money -- I needed the help with logistics, and Devorah was there for me every step of the way. At my son's engagement party, Devorah quietly arranged for a beautiful, comical centerpiece to be placed on a table at the entryway of the hall. This gave the bride, groom and guests a good laugh and helped divert attention from the painful absence of a beloved father (plus the absence of the bride's mother, may they both rest in peace). When my daughter got engaged, I got a very special call from Devorah. A family in the community needed to move out of town in a hurry and was unable to sell their beautiful, like-new, solid wood bedroom furniture. They had donated the furniture to Devorah's organization, and now she was calling to offer it to my daughter and her groom! They didn't need it, but we were all touched deeply by her generous gesture. At my daughter's wedding, Devorah was there for me when the going got emotionally rough for me. She smoothed the way by addressing tiny details (she ran out to pay a bill at a local shop when I felt like I couldn't cope with another detail). She realized that I'm not the outwardly emotional type and would be overwhelmed if she made a fuss over me, so she helped me regain my composure by just quietly being there. I was able to enter the wedding hall with a smile on my face that lasted the entire evening. Another small but significant, and very telling, thing she's done is to accept the donation of new, good-quality cleaning rags, cut from someone's old towels and teeshirts. This is a very intimate item, the kind of thing only a mother would give to her daughter. Devorah has given these out in prettily-wrapped packages to brides who had no mother to do it for them. Devorah literally becomes a member of the family for those who need it at the special time surrounding a wedding. She lovingly helps build new Jewish families, one wedding at a time.

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