Shaya Ilowitz & Yedidim Choir – First Song מתרצה ברחמים From Tzali Gold Debut Album “Ahava Raba” Composed by Meshulam Greenberger Second Song “Refua” Composed by Baruch Levine, the yearly Yad Ephraim fundraising dinner in Boro Park on January 8 2014

Yad Ephraim was established nearly a decade ago with a simple mission: to be a volunteer bikur cholim service in the true spirit of the word. We started small, gathering a caring group of volunteers to distribute the warm, wholesome meals we prepared in our kitchen.

Our focus was Maimonides Hospital in Boro Park, firstly, because of its proximity to our organization, and secondly, because a large number of its patients ate kosher only, and we were able to provide kosher meals.

Over the years, the need for our services increased and our small kitchen could not sufficiently accommodate our requirements. We knew we had to build a larger, better work space. In 2010, our new state-of-the-art kitchen, located adjacent to Maimonides, was completed.

In the beginning, we met our budget with funds donated by private sponsors. Their monetary support enabled us to set up the Yad Ephraim kitchen and purchase the necessary provisions. For a short while, this arrangement worked wonderfully.

Within months, however, we hit an obstacle. The problem was our popularity. Little did we imagine, when we initially established Yad Ephraim, how crucial the needs for our services would be. Suddenly, we were getting calls from people whose loved ones were patients in other hospitals. We were getting calls from people who were homebound for months due to illness. We were getting more calls than we ever dreamed we would get. The requests varied:

The days of our “small” organization supported by a few private donors were over. We expanded our kitchen and our services. We printed a tehillim list, which we placed in various public facilities as well as in some media venues. We set up a 24-hour emergency hotline, so that patients could have access to our services at any time. We organized specific programs for each holiday, so that we could bring joy to the soul as well as to the body. The list goes on and on.

Of course, we are pleased that we can be the providers of such much-needed assistance. But our budget can only be stretched so far. Currently, our prospect of survival depends on the financial support of people like you. We receive a miniscule amount of government assistance, so it is only with the help of kind-hearted individuals that we can fund the enormous amount of food and other staples required by an organization such as ours.