To our esteemed Gevirim and Community Leaders of Brooklyn,
I write to you with great admiration and respect, aware of the many ways in which you have supported and sustained our kehilla with generosity, leadership, and vision. Your dedication to Klal Yisroel — in Torah, chesed, and communal growth — has built institutions, supported families, and shaped the future of generations.
Recently, a remarkable initiative was launched in Lakewood: two new wedding halls, Ateres Blima and Ateres Esther, were established to directly address the crushing financial burden so many families face when marrying off children. These halls offer an elegant, all-inclusive simcha package — hall, catering, music, photography, flowers, and more — for just $13,000. The vision is not simply affordability, but a shift in expectations, a reset that prioritizes simcha, dignity, and achrayus over pressure and excess.
The results speak for themselves. Seventy-five weddings have already been booked. The halls are beautiful, efficient, and designed with the community in mind. More than that — they represent hope. They say to a struggling family: “You can make a chasunah without debt. You can celebrate without shame.”
And here is the question we must now ask:
If such a project is possible in Lakewood — and if it is being led, funded, and driven by gevirim from Brooklyn — why can’t we build the same in Brooklyn itself?
Why should Brooklyn families continue to face overwhelming simcha costs, while the very solution being praised in Lakewood remains out of reach for us here? The need is no less urgent in Brooklyn. The numbers are no less staggering. The impact would be just as powerful — and perhaps even more so, given the size and diversity of our neighborhoods.
The community respectfully urges our community leaders and donors to come together and bring this vision to life in Brooklyn. We already have the model. We already have the people. What we need now is the will.
Let us be the generation that changed the trajectory — that made weddings manageable, beautiful, and filled with real simcha. Let us act with foresight, with compassion, and with responsibility.
With heartfelt hope,
Y.R.B
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