There was a student we had last year, who has since moved to Florida.
He had a difficult life, coming from a broken home.
His father tried his best to take care of him and his sister’s, but was wildly unready for the challenges of single parenthood.
When this boy was in school, we did our best to help him succeed. He had deep emotional pain, and this manifested to uncouth and violent outbursts.
Through this all Rabbi Blank always saw the good in this boy, and never gave up on him.
Then covid hit, and this boy was home with his sister’s, his father, and no support.
Rabbi Blank has 6 children of his own, and nevertheless he found time to visit this boys house every day, and make sure he wasn’t falling behind, he never charged the family a dime.
He raised money, and was able to hire someone to come every 2 weeks, to do the children’s laundry, and clean their apartment.
When school reopened, and this boy came back, he had a really hard time adjusting.
One day i received a call from his father, saying they were moving to Florida, when I asked when, he told me “now, we are in the car”
The boy never got the chance to say goodbye.
Rabbi Blank immediately got to work, he worked for weeks, calling and emailing, and was finally able to get these children into a good school.
He never asked for anything, all he knew was these children needed him.
This is why I am nominating Rabbi Blank for the kindness award.