Our founders, Leah (96) and Dr. Herbert Hillel Goldberg (95), celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary–a biblical lifetime–on December 18.
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After surviving the horrors of the Shoah (Holocaust), Hillel and Leah Goldberg were married a decade later. Early on, they had organized and led humanitarian relief work among tens of thousands of European refugees in dozens of towns across northern Germany. This was followed by moves to England, Canada and the United States before they finally settled in Israel.
They recall it as a 40-year-long wandering through the desert before coming home, where they head a family of 17, including children and grandchildren.
The Goldberg’s experiences in Europe had led them to work on behalf of the Jewish people and Israel through advocacy and charitable aid. This resulted in the creation of LEMA’AN ZION (“For Zion’s sake” Isai. 62:1) in Canada in 1972, and subsequently in Switzerland and the United States. In the next 53 years, their teaching outreaches, framed by prayer, impacted audiences worldwide.
· Their subject has always been Israel: Correcting misconceptions and false teaching about the Jews and elucidating prophetic Scripture and its fulfillment through Israel in our days.
· Concrete action was also emphasized (see pg. 2). Friends worldwide have helped provide food, medical treatments, clothing, furniture and job training for Holocaust survivors and victims of terror across Israel, new immigrants from the former Soviet Union and Ethiopia, orphans and widows, and the elderly and infirm.
· Since the 1990s, this was accompanied by weekly prayer at the Kotel, the Temple Prayer Wall, in Jerusalem for needs shared with us from around the world (see pg. 8).
Despite beginning their life’s journey together with memories of horror still fresh, the lives of Hillel and Leah have been blessed, and they in turn have been a blessing to many others. Mazal tov! Congratulations!