Two Chabad stories, reported here on COLlive.com, were among “The 7 most heartwarming Jewish stories of 2017.”
The list was collected by Josefin Dolsten of the JTA news agency gathered the most uplifting articles published during this past secular year.
Story #4:
A Jewish woman comforts a distressed child with autism on an airplane
During a transatlantic flight in July, Rochel Groner noticed an autistic boy crying and shrieking. The atmosphere on the flight grew increasingly tense and she felt she had to do something.
Groner, a Chabad emissary in North Carolina, who with her husband runs two groups for young adults with special needs, approached the child and comforted him for about two hours.
“I put out my hand, and he took my hand. It was such a surreal moment, and he just took it, and he stopped crying,” she said. “He kind of just followed me into the aisle. I walked to the bulkhead, and I sat down and I put him in my lap, and I gave him a gentle but firm hug and I just started to rock him. He calmed down.”
Social media users were touched by the story. Photos of Groner holding the boy, along with a post by her husband detailing the account, received some 6,700 likes and was shared 1,300 times on Facebook.
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Story #7:
Supporters raise over $1 million for an Orthodox fashion designer after her husband suddenly died
Tragedy struck Simi Polonsky, the Orthodox co-founder of a modest fashion label, when her husband, Shua, died in November from a condition he had contracted only weeks before.
To help alleviate her suffering, supporters quickly came to her aid — and more than 9,000 donors raised over $1 million online for Polonsky and her two young children, with a third on the way.
Polonsky, who said she will continue working on The Frock NYC, wrote movingly on Instagram that the support helped her go on.
“I know no one will be able to heal my broken heart, but at the times when I feel like I just cannot keep my arms raised any longer, your love and support are the rocks that hold them for me,” she wrote. “My mind boggles, when I think about the unstoppable love that ushers unto my family on a minute to minute basis.”
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