Three weeks ago the students of the Neveh Chana Girls' High School in Gush Etzion took on a rather ambitious project: to organize an entire wedding for two Jewish converts.
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The 10th graders set out on a mission to arrange the wedding before Passover so that Haya and Eliav could celebrate the Festival of Freedom as a married couple.
Rivki Yisraeli, Neveh Channah's educational director, said, "Every year the tenth-grade students organize a Purim Fair with the aim of raising funds for a social cause of their choice. This year, the girls approached me with a different idea – they wanted to arrange a wedding for a couple who needed assistance.
"Since our high school belongs to the Ohr Torah Stone educational network which also runs a conversion program, I turned to its director, Rabbanit Renana Birnbaum, to see if there was a couple who could do with some help. She introduced us to two lovely Jewish converts from South America: Haya, who had made aliyah from Mexico 14 years ago, and Eliav who had made aliyah from Cuba just nine months ago. Both were thrilled to have our students organize their wedding for them."
The girls raised over 20,000 shekels ($6,200) and took it upon themselves to organize the wedding in its entirety, including the photographer and makeup, catering and music, decorations and clothing for the bride and groom, and other tasks, all of which were performed on a voluntary basis.
"It was fascinating to see the extent to which people opened their hearts and contributed of their time and money," Yisraeli said. "The professionals approached by the girls volunteered without hesitation.
The same goes for the parents and teaching staff, who devoted themselves, completely and utterly, to the task at hand."
Eliav, whose name was once Marco, arrived in Israel from Cuba nine months ago after a nine-year journey into Judaism and the Land of Israel.
On his father's side of the family, there are Jewish roots, as it is believed his father is a descendent of Jews who were coerced to convert to Christianity and fled Spain and landed up in Cuba.
After Marco discovered his Jewish ancestry, he had an urge to explore his roots further but had no Jewish community to turn to. Life in communist Cuba was difficult and did not afford him books and information about Judaism.
"When smartphones were first introduced in 2016, making the internet so much more accessible, I grabbed the opportunity and started learning about Judaism on my own. This is also when I started dreaming about living in the Land of Israel," he said.
Marco started working as a tour guide to save money for the move and made friends in the USA who then sent him a Torah, a menorah, and a prayer book. At the same time, rabbinical emissaries from Ohr Torah Stone provided him with Torah lessons via Skype and WhatsApp.
Rabbi Michael Freund, the Chairman of the Shavei Israel organization who had met Marco in Havana a few years earlier, initiated the first steps in bringing him to Israel.
However, this was almost "mission impossible" because Cuba had no diplomatic ties with Israel. To help put things into motion, Haya was brought on board to join the effort.
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She had made aliyah 14 years earlier and had undergone a full conversion process along with her family, after which she started working in Shavei Israel providing guidance to converts.
"As part of my job, I helped Marco translate the necessary documents and put all his papers in order, constantly offering guidance. We became really close," she said. "Although we had never actually met, he shared with me all he was going through and we would talk at great length. There was wonderful chemistry. From the minute I saw him, I knew he was a man of pure heart and profound faith, and he really made an impression on me."
Over the next three years, numerous attempts were made to get Marco a visa, but to no avail. When all hope seemed lost, Rabbanit Birnbaum of Ohr Torah Stone's conversion program managed to get him an interview with the Israeli Rabbinate for the purpose of starting the conversion process. And last July, following some complicated logistics and thanks to the assistance of the Israeli embassy in Canada, Marco was finally able to set foot in Israel and meet Haya face-to-face.
A month and a half ago, Marco completed the conversion process and chose his new Hebrew name: Eliav. He and Haya decided to get married just around the time the girls from Neveh Channah made contact.
"The wedding was simply wonderful," Haya said. "The students from Neveh Channah made me feel loved and enveloped me with good energy and sanctity. They have pure hearts, a real and profound desire to make others happy, and a special light that radiates from their faces. The school took care of the smallest details, and along with the various professionals they recruited for the event, I was treated like a real queen by all."
