It doesn’t matter how you met Laura Weissman. If you knew her, you were invited to join her Shabbos table. Shabbat at the Weissmans’ meant a table heaped with food – spicy Moroccan fish, hot beef borscht, Laura’s taco salad, olive chicken, and so much more. Zemirot abounded over sweet mint tea, usually served about four hours after the guests had arrived. (Laura joked that every guest should get an “I Survived the Weissmans” t-shirt!)

The secret ingredient to a Weissman Shabbat table was that every possible flavor of person sat around it. The weekly regulars, strangers, Jews of every type, Muslims and Christians, people who kept Shabbos all their lives and people who had never experienced a Shabbos dinner before. Over the years, Laura fed thousands of people.

Ezrat Achim, a nonprofit based in Beit Shemesh, provides fresh food to seniors, people with disabilities and families faced with medical emergencies. Anyone who needs food – from all sectors of the city – is fed by Ezrat Achim. Currently, local volunteers cook meals daily in their own homes, but Ezrat Achim needs to build a proper kitchen to keep up with the requests they are receiving from hundreds of families.

With the help of Laura’s friends, family, and the guests who shared her table, we want to continue feeding others in her name, by donating to Ezrat Achim’s kitchen in her memory thereby honoring her legacy of hospitality. Please donate generously!