A STORY OF HOPE, FROM AUSTRALIA

Dear Family,

I hope everyone is well.

Mazal Tov Baty on your upcoming birthday!

Mazal Tov Baty and Shmueli on your engagement anniversary which was Yud Shvat

Wishing you both much success in all matters including bringing up your beautiful Family together.

I don't usually talk about engagement anniversaries, but seeing we mentioned Baty and Shmueli , and so let us also mention Penina and Avi's, and also Mommy and I last week.

This coming week is also the Yohrtzeit of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson ZLB.

Looks like its all happening in Sydney this week with Baty and Shmueli's celebrations, and an interesting story I read in L'Chaim weekly Publication, also about someone from Sydney.

I think the story is also relevant to this weeks Parsha Bo, which talks about going out of Egypt (Mitzraim)

Mitzraim has the same root as the word metzarim which means restriction, and applies also to ourselves individually, leaving all the areas of our lives which restrict us.

The story I read was about a man called Mr Mendel Glick from Sydney, who is a baker and owns a chain of Glick's Cakes and Bagels.

He recently celebrated his 91st birthday.

And this is his story:

Him and his family were from Europe and they got caught up in the War.

He says that the very fact that he can be sitting around a table today, and talking, is a pure miracle.

He went through 6 concentration camps and lost both his parents and 9 siblings.

He spoke of all the 'unbearable' trauma he had to endure in the camps, and without going into these details, I am sure we can imagine what it must have felt like, especially having also lost parents, brothers and sisters.

'When the Americans liberated Buchenwald in 1945, I was a living skeleton. I still remember an American soldier picking me up and taking me outside.. In hospital we were only allowed a teaspoon of warm water plus a lump of sugar every half hour......As I began to recover the doctor said that in order to speed up the process of recovery, I had to start walking, since the human body requires motion in order to survive. I listened to him and adopted this attitude to this very day.'

'I then started working at an American military base nearby, polishing shoes..then promoted to kitchen which I liked most (brought back many memories of home....), learned the basics of catering....opportunity came to move to Australia where there was an aunt.....bought a ticket (note, one ticket) and set out on the journey. In Australia I became a cleaner, setting money aside to start my own business...and a few years later I finally opened my first Glick's shop on Carlisle Street.....other shops followed.......I help charities.....and along the same vein prints on his brown paper challah bags 'Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something'....and says there are still many people who need help, whether it be assistance, money, a piece of bread or a kind word. And even if is impossible to answer everyone's needs, we can still do something to improve people's lives, and this is why I put this message on my bags.'

Today you can still see Mr Glick dressed in a white shirt and a white yarmulke, always busy, shaping another challah, or removing bones from the herrings.

He is a proud father of nine children, and a grandfather of over 120.

He was asked 'Some people say that you never go on holidays. Is that true?

'Yes ' he answers with a smile.

'Why should I? I have a job that I love and I have regular time to rest on Shabbos and Yom Tov.'

'What can I say - I AM A HAPPY MAN.'

Wishing everyone a Gut Shabbos.