Community Heals Together as Moldova Mikva Dedicated

When Chabad of Moldova first built a mikvah back in 2002 they didn’t anticipate Chișinău’s Jewish population boom. Chabad emissary Rabbi Zalman Abelsky, of blessed memory, and his wife Leah moved to Chișinău in 1990, which then counted a Jewish population of 10,000. The Abelskys built Jewish infrastructure, including synagogues, schools, and the country’s first mikvah. But as the war in Ukraine brought refugees flowing into the country, the influx of Jewish people meant that the small, now-aging mikvah was rendered woefully inadequate. 

Several weeks ago, Rabbi Zusha and Chaya Abelsky—who took the reins of Chabad in Moldova after the elder Rabbi Abelsky’s passing in 2014—cut the red ribbon and opened the beautiful, state-of-the-art Mikvah Liel. Local residents, refugees from Ukraine—and two couples from America who providentially joined the Moldova Jewish community to create this new mikvah—came out to celebrate the opening ceremony.

It wouldn’t be easy to find the funding for the mikvah—certainly the refugees flowing into the city are largely not in a position to be of help. But “no miracle happens from nothing,” Abelsky said. “So I started making phone calls.”

At a fundraiser, Abelsky connected with Maya Namdar, of Maya’s Place, a clothing store in New York. After her daughter Liel had been killed at age 15 by a drunk driver in December, 2021, Maya experienced deep feelings of depression and loss. A friend, Rachel Ostroy—of Pink Label by Rachel Ostroy, another New York clothing boutique—reached out. Mitzvahs to memorialize Liel, she felt, would go a long way toward providing Maya with solace. Ostroy launched a netilat yadayim campaign followed by her 100,000 followers, many of whom took on the mitzvah of ritual handwashing in memory of Liel. 

Maya described to Chaya how thousands had taken on the mitzvah of netilat yadayim, and a number of women had also pledged to begin going to the mikvah in Liel’s memory. 

The next day, Chaya called Maya and described the mikvah they had set out to create in Moldova.

“Does the mikvah have a name yet?” Maya asked. 

It did not. 

Now it would. 

Maya—along with Rachel and other Jewish influencers—launched a fundraiser that paid for the cost of the entire mikvah and elevated it from the relatively spartan, utilitarian facility the Abelskys had initially planned to build, to a state-of-the-art mikvah.

The Abelskys raced against the clock to have the mikvah ready by Liel’s third yahrtzeit. On the Shabbat before Liel’s yahrtzeit, Maya Namdar and her husband Effy, and Rachel Ostroy and her husband Shuie joined the community at Chabad of Moldova for what would turn out to be a memorable Shabbat for the family and for the community.

“You couldn’t be there that weekend and not be changed,” Rabbi Zushe Abelsky of Chabad of Moldova described. “The tears shed could have filled an ocean.” 

Abelsky describes the meeting of two cultures — East and West. The stoic Ukrainian and Moldovan Jews, used to suffering quietly, watched as Maya and Effy spoke about their daughter Liel.

“It melted the room,” Rabbi Abelsky said. “There were a lot of emotions, a lot of hugs.” 

On Sunday, they gathered at the new mikvah and cut the ribbon: the grieving parents, the supporting friends, and the Moldovan Jewish community, united in healing as Mikvah Liel was dedicated.

“For three years — since Liel passed away, I couldn’t laugh,” Maya Namdar said. “Today, for the first time, I can smile.”