Why we opened this campaign
Two Weeks Until the Chuppah. And There Is No Money for the Wedding
Behind this campaign is a real family. The Sklyars. In two weeks, their son will lead his bride to the chuppah. It should be a moment of pure joy — but his parents are sitting at home counting shekels they simply do not have.
The Sklyars came from Moscow in the late 1990s. They met there, got married already in Israel, and here they came closer to Torah.
The father once studied history in Gorky. In Israel, he began learning all over again, from scratch, in Hebrew: Yeshivat “Netivot Olam” in Bnei Brak, then fifteen years in Kollel “Aran” in Ramot, and today — Kollel “Or Torah” in Kiryat Sefer.
Fifteen years in kollel. This is not a line in a biography. It is a life devoted to learning.
His health has been failing him for a long time. The father is recognized as 100% disabled and is almost unable to work. At home, he runs a gemach for medicines, raises rabbits, parrots, and aquarium fish — the few things he is still able to do.
The mother carries the family on her shoulders: she works as an assistant kindergarten teacher, and in the past gave piano lessons and ran a knitting class. During COVID, she was laid off from a good job.
Six children. The eldest daughter is already married, the youngest is in fourth grade. And they raised every one of them in Torah.
Their son — the groom — was special from childhood. “He was created for Torah,” people always said about him. And that is exactly what happened. He became a true talmid chacham and studies at Yeshivat “Orchot Torah” in Bnei Brak. He is loved by his teachers and friends.
He dreams of building a Torah home, continuing to learn, and one day teaching Torah himself.
His bride is his match — a serious young woman, devoted to Torah, from a wonderful family with eight children, where the parents invest everything they have into each child. They live on the same street in Brachfeld.
After the wedding, the young couple will remain close to their parents: the groom will continue learning in kollel, and the bride will continue working as a teacher.
It would seem like quiet happiness.
But behind the family stand debts that have been dragging on for years. They did not come from living beyond their means, but from hardship: medicines, treatments, the years when the father was bedridden and the mother was left without work.
And today, the worst threat hangs over their home. A court-appointed receiver is demanding the sale of their only apartment unless 400,000 shekels are paid within the next year and a half.
There is no court ruling yet, but fear has already entered the home.
“If we are evicted from our only home, it will be a tragedy for the entire family and will finish off our father completely,” they write.
And against this background — a wedding.
They are making it as modestly as possible, in the cheapest hall in the city. Even so, their side alone comes to 32,000–34,000 shekels.
So far, they have managed to collect only crumbs: 1,500 shekels, 650, 200 dollars, 1,300 dollars — and that is all.
Two weeks remain until the chuppah.
We are not asking to cover the entire debt, and we are not asking to pay for the whole wedding. We are asking for help raising 10,000 shekels — the part without which the chuppah simply will not happen:
- Hall — 4,500 ₪
- Chuppah arrangement and kisei kallah — 1,500 ₪
- Music: keyboard player and singer — 2,100 ₪
- Bride’s bouquet and refreshments for guests — 1,900 ₪
Hachnasat Kallah is one of those mitzvot whose fruits a person enjoys in this world and whose reward remains for the World to Come.
Right now, we have a rare opportunity to fulfill it in its purest form: to help the son of a talmid chacham and the daughter of a righteous family stand under the chuppah with dignity — not with shame over an empty table.
Without us, they will not be able to carry this wedding.
Let us raise these 10,000 shekels together — and may there finally be only joy in the Sklyar home after such a long time. Be’ezrat Hashem.
