Our Update #14
Legal Ledger
• We would like to congratulate the New York law firm Hafetz Necheles & Rocco upon the move to their new offices. We wish them much continued success in all their worthwhile endeavors.
• Good News! After receiving and reviewing the 2013 fiscal report from our Legal Aid department, we are pleased to share that b”H we helped cut the expense from our brothers and pain in over 50 cases that if not for their intervention would have been that much more painful and costly.
• The Dror accountants are currently putting the finishing touches on a new program geared toward helping people know how to file taxes properly for the fiscal year 2013. Stay tuned for the final report!
• In other accounting news, we are training a few new accountants to qualify them to work with the Gemach Association run by Dror.
Prevention Pointers
• Chaim Hersh Freund is working together with the Abe Roth & Company to jointly produce a press release under the auspices of Dror’s Prevention Program. A Special Thank you to him!
New Text Support Program
• Dror is in the midst of organizing a text message group for the Dror women and a separate group for the girls to get them connected to one another as an additional vehicle of support. The groups will be headed by Dr. David Pelcovitz, Ph.D. and Professor, Straus, who holds a Chair in Psychology and Education.
Kosher Food Update
• Chaim Hersh Freund & Amrum Israel paid a visit to some of our brothers behind bars in Rikers Island and also Brooklyn Detention center, to ensure that all Yidden there have their needs met and to see what else can be done to further ease their pain.
• Shmiel Yaakov Hecht and Yoel Usher Labin went last week to the Staten Island Court House to oversee the trial of a Heimishe yid and ensure that he was accorded proper fairness throughout the trial proceedings
• Under the able supervision of Rav Aryeh Leib Glanz, Dror has sent over 200 fresh meals to our brothers in Fort Dix Correctional Facility to ensure that there is proper kosher food to eat in the visiting rooms, as well as pizza and cookies for the Heimishe people there.
• We would like to thanks the Imperial hall of Williamsburg and its proprietor, Chaim Meir Ganzfreid, for his Sponsoring 400 meals for our dear brothers serving time in prison.
• Special thanks to Mendelson’s pizza shop and Stern’s Bakery for their donating pizza and fresh cookies, respectively
• We would like to express a special note of gratitude to Burich Veiner for always going the extra mile to make sure that the machines in the Fort Dix visiting room is filled with food for the visiting days.
• A Great big Thanks to the Indig brothers and Avrum Meir Schwartz for arranging meals for a yid in a rehab center/half way house and a special thanks to the driver, Avrumi Breuer, who delivers the food and who always goes in to be Mechazek the yid and deliver hot, fresh food.
Volunteers Save The Day, As Usual!
• A special note of appreciation to all Dror Volunteers who give up of their time and energy to help Dror families successfully organize rides to the prisons to visit their loved ones.
• A special note of thanks to those volunteers who make themselves available weekly: Z. Klein, D. Birnbaum , T. Lipschutz , A. Breuer, N. Prero, S. Weissblum and N. Leifer.
New Campaigns
• Special Tzedakah bags were distributed in Batei Midrashim all over Boro Park, Williamsburg, Monsey, Lakewood and other locations where an askan will be going around in each Shul to help us meet our growing budget to help our fellow Yidden behind bars. 
• If you are able to assist us in this worthy Mitzvah, please call us at (718) 280-1510 Extension 106 and we will coordinate a bag for your Shul.
• Our esteemed menahel Reb Yoel Usher Labin worked on a major Atzeres to coincide with the shloshim of the unforgettable businessman Menachem Stark, Hy”d, which at the same time served as a fundraiser for the Blumgarten case; Nefesh Tachas Nefesh. Special thanks to Reb Yoel Usher for ensuring the success of the campaign!
Shabbaton Memories Still As Fresh As Ever
A meeting was held in the offices of Dror to go over all the details of the Shabbos to take stock and ensure that Drors future events should be held with success.
Families are still talking about, and thanking us for, the inspiring Shabbaton they had with Dror and what it did for them.
Here is yet another letter of thanks that arrived in our headquarters this past week:
“Dear Dror,
I am writing to thank all of you for the absolutely fantastic Shabbos we experienced in Bushkill Falls, PA. Words cannot adequately describe the wonderful experience. Our family enjoyed the accommodations, the food, the activities, the Davening, the “workshops”, the gift packages-and most particularly the great feelings of friendship and understanding that prevailed.
Never have we been taken care of in so loving and so understanding a manner. It simply defies the imagination. An enormous amount of work must have gone into the planning and execution of this Shabbaton and I want you to know how greatly we appreciated everything. (If I would make one small change, it would be to provide time for at least a short Shabbos nap! We were so busy enjoying all that went on that we gladly went without-we can make it up next week, no?)
We felt accepted and pampered beyond belief. May הקב”ה reward you for all the good you do and for the cheer you bring to us and our loved ones.
Again, thank you, thank you.”
Mazel Tov!
• A warm Mazel Tov to Mr. & Mrs. Chaim Kompel upon the engagement of their daughter to the chassan, our dear friend who had a big part in being mesamei’ach at our Shabaton, Zevi Goldring.
• Mazel Tov to our dear friend R’ Moshe Diamond upon the wedding of his daughter
• Mazel Tov for Reb Chaim Luzer Moskowitz on the wedding of his daughter
• Mazel Tov for Reb Eliezer Shimon Haltovsky on the birth of a baby girl
Until next time, thank you for supporting Dror! Stay warm and safe out there!