A Jewish eighth grader in Beijing is selling cakes to make sure she can be with three of her school friends when she goes to a conference in New York later this month.
Thirteen-year-old Devorah Freundlich, daughter of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries to China Rabbi Shimon and Dini Freundlich, plans to attend this month's annual Conference of Chabad Representatives with her mother. Not an unusual goal for a child of international Chabad emissaries, Devorah added another, however – she wanted to make sure that several of her classmates could join her.
The problem is that the students are scattered throughout the world. For Devorah, visiting after school means a transcontinental flight and $1,000 or more for a ticket. In the online international Jewish day school that Devorah attends, her friends are hours, mega-pixels and gigabytes away.
But though they check in for attendance in their classrooms each day from points as foreign as Oslo, Beijing, Brisbane and Johannesburg, the girls nevertheless manage to build friendships as strong as the faith their families share with their fellow Jews.
And every year, when many of the girls travel with their mothers to attend the annual Conference of Chabad Representatives in New York, they meet at a parallel program specially organized for students at the Shluchim Online School.
Devorah, determined to see three of her friends – two from Australia and one from the Ukraine – decided to put her fund raising skills on the line and raise enough money to buy the tickets and make sure they could go.
“The Shluchim Office Online School is the lifeline for these children a whole year, with the kinus (conference -ed.) being the highlight for them, where they have a chance to interact with fellow children their age who face similar challenges,” commented Devorah's mother.
For weeks now, the young emissary has been baking custom cakes in various shapes and themes, and selling them for $30 apiece. So far, she's sold more than 30 of the cakes, and has raised $1,000. With 100 more cakes and just two more weeks to go, Devorah has been praying for success, and last week, it seemed her prayers might be answered.
She had baked a "welcome" cake for a new girl in the school and presented it at the communal Shabbat dinner hosted by her parents every Friday night. Guests at the table, including several from overseas, were so impressed that they decided to donate to the cause. One man donated the funds for a round trip ticket, in fact.
“I am doing something I love – baking – to help out my friends," she told Lubavitch.com. What could be better?”