* Translated by Janine Muller
"Shalom, Sivan. My name is Noa Nechteiler and I would like to share a story with an important message for everyone:
Exactly one year ago today, on the ninth of Sivan, 21-year-old Eliyahu Moshe Zimbalist was killed in Gaza. He had made aliyah with his family from Silver Spring, Maryland, lived in Beit Shemesh, and studied at Yeshivat Shaalvim.
I went with a good friend to comfort his family during the shiva. We left inspired by the faith and nobility of these precious people. On the way home, we couldn’t stop thinking - we felt that we needed to do something to continue to spread Eli Moshe’s light in the world.
And then we arrived at a simple and profound idea: we would try to make a shidduch (match) between people we knew. We started to think of names and to share different ideas. We spoke about my cousin and my friend came up with a brilliant suggestion for her. Suddenly, everything seemed to come together.
I reached out to this young man, who was then serving in Gaza. He replied that he didn’t think it was a suitable time for him. But several months later he got back to me and asked if the girl we had in mind for him was still available…
Flash forward to last Thursday. We were making our way to this couple’s wedding when it suddenly occurred to us that the wedding would be taking place on the ninth of Sivan, exactly one year after this tragedy, in Eli Moshe’s merit.
Mazal tov, Yehuda and Hodaya. May all of us be blessed with good news.
I’m also writing this note to encourage everyone to think of different ways in which they too can fill the vacuum left behind in the Jewish people".
