 
Shuvu Celebrates Kleinman Family Petach Tikva Dedication
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Published on Thursday, October 22, 2009 -
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“Reb Elly and Brochie Kleinman are very well known in America for being involved in many inyanei tzedakah; almost everything involving tzedakah that happens in America as well as in Eretz Yisrael,” Shuvu’s co-chairman Reb Avrohom Biderman introduced the guests of honor at the dedication ceremony of the Kleinman Family Shuvu Petach Tikva Girls’ High School. “With the berachah and the eitzah of Moreinu Harav Pam, zt”l he was zocheh to be very matzliach, but he never forgot his roots. Now that he was matzliach he didn’t say “kochi ve’otzem yadi” but rather he feels achrayus; a model for everyone else who has been matzliach to say “how can I help others?” He’s helped so many mosdos Torah v’chesed and we have the zechus that one of the mosdos he got involved in is Shuvu.”
Back on November 5, 2003 the Kleinmans began their tremendous devotion to Shuvu with their dedication of the Shuvu Lod School. Starting with a modest 40 students, the Lod school has since grown to be one of Shuvu’s largest, and with the fastest growth, with over 600 students today. However not only is the school known for its size, but also for its excellence. Thousands of Jewish children have been learning Torah only in the zechus of the Kleinman family.
At the time, Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievski helped the Kleinmans make their decision to dedicate the Shuvu Lod school. “But we were told not just to dedicate the school but to visit whenever we can, to check up on our kinderlach. Baruch Hashem, my wife and I have made it our business to visit regularly.”
It was upon one of these visits that the Shuvu Lod principal Mrs. Michal Huminer raised her concern of what will happen with the talmidos. The graduates needed a Shuvu high school to continue in. “She didn’t want to lose even one neshamah, chas v’shalom, going to a school that is not appropriate,” recalled Reb Elly. “My wife Brochie and I felt the same way so I called up Avrohom Biderman and said: “It’s time for a girls’ high school!”
And so on Monday, October 12, 2009, Isru Chag of Sukkos, the Kleinman family was joined by many distinguished guests to celebrate the dedication of “The Kleinman Shuvu Petach Tikva Girls’ High School.” The guests included Petach Tikva Mayor Yitzchak Ohayon; his deputy, Rav Uriel Buso and other heads of the municipality; Deputy Minister of Education MK Rabbi Meir Porush; Shuvu’s rabbinic advisor and activist Hagaon Harav Moshe Silberberg; Rav Shmuel Bloom, former executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America; Rav Yitzchok Rosengarten; and of course, the hundreds of students learning in the Shuvu Petach Tikva schools.
As Reb Elly, Brochie, and their children and grandchildren arrived at the school grounds, the tremendous sense of glee and pride was felt. Rav Chaim Michoel Gutterman opened the ceremony by thanking the Kleinman family for its long support extended throughout to Shuvu. He recalled that during the recent chag the Kleinmans donated two new massive, beautiful wooden sukkahs for the convenience of the visitors to the Kosel. Having participated at the celebration for the Kleinmans at the Kosel the week before, Rav Gutterman quoted Reb Elly’s words then. “Reb Elly, you said then that even had it been for only one individual who is not frum who would’ve entered the sukkah and made a berachah, it would’ve been worth it!”
“Shuvu,” continued Rav Gutterman, “unites everyone under one sukkah. Children from different backgrounds, Russians, Ethiopians, are all together. Elly and Brochie, you already have thousands and thousands of berachos and zechuyos of Shuvu children, and now, in your zechus there is also a girls’ high school!”
Rav Gutterman then called upon a few students to greet the Kleinman family and express their feelings about the school. Ninth grader Nicole Daniel opened her words with a personal note. As a resident of Ashdod and former student of the Shuvu elementary school there, she said that no one had believed that Kassam missiles would ever reach their town. Until Chanukah last year, during the Gaza War. Then the sirens were sounded in the city and Kassams did indeed fall. Everyone stayed indoors for a complete week. After that week of being cooped up and feeling a desperate need to breathe some fresh air, Nicole set out to go shopping with her father. Upon entering their car, though, she realized that she had forgotten her sweater. She quickly ran back to her house to get her sweater, and as she was about to reenter the car, the siren sounded announcing an imminent missile. Nicole lay down on the ground with her father lying on top of her, and she started to say Tehillim. Seconds later a tremendous explosion was heard a mere block ahead of them. “A Kassam landed directly on the bus stop close to my house, killing a woman,” she recalled emotionally. “My father and I would’ve been exactly there had it not been for my going home again. The 20 seconds Hashem delayed me to get my sweater saved our lives!”
Nicole continued, “That was one of the moments that I thanked Hashem for my special relationship with Him. A very special relationship with Him which without a doubt would not have been so had I not been learning here. In my years at Shuvu I’ve learned values and middos, which I do not only implement within the school grounds. I learn of how we are meant to talk to our teachers and to our peers. After all, we are all human beings and we were all created B’tzelem Elokim! Primarily, we are taught to appreciate and respect our parents who do so much for us, and we do so willingly and lovingly. I see how peers of ours in other schools talk to their parents, and just find it hard to believe that one can treat them so! We also learn the importance of giving altruistically, and in so feel the connection to our ancestors who gave up their last piece of bread for others during the terrible Shoah. We learn to distinguish between the gevurah of one’s body, which is temporary, to the gevurah of one’s nefesh, which is permanent, and fills one with true simcha. I know that when I will graduate from Shuvu I will take with me values which will stay with me my entire life: the Torah values which come wrapped in warmth and love. Last year my mechanechet used to write me letters showing love and care—if I had experienced a success, or if she noticed that my smile had disappeared for whatever reason, and that I was feeling down. These letters showed care, concern, and love, and I’ve saved them to this very day. What amazed me is that when I came here from Ashdod following the war and decided to stay, I’ve come to realize that there is no real difference between Shuvu Ashdod and Shuvu Petach Tikva, and I’m sure the same applies to Shuvu Jerusalem and the others. They all give over the Torah values in a loving and caring manner which strengthen my nefesh, ultimately bringing us to serve our Creator. I am grateful every day for being able to learn here, because there really is nothing like Shuvu, and this is thanks to our wonderful principal and teachers who make every effort to make us feel that our school is our home. May Hashem give you all the koach to continue on!”
Seeing the Kleinman family’s devotion and love for the children of K’lal Yisrael in general, and of Shuvu in particular, and especially considering the Kleinmans’ dream, it seems just a matter of time until b’ezras Hashem the heads of Shuvu and the Kleinman family will be gathering again to celebrate more dedications for their kinderlach, the children of Shuvu. ♦
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