MILWAUKEE, Wisc. — Gathering in the heart of the Bader Hillel Academy campus, students spent their Friday morning offering prayers of hope and healing for Milwaukee native Henya Federman and her family.
“Every person that I've been in contact with in the last couple days can’t stop talking about Henya being the most beautiful person, always smiling, always kind, always giving from herself to others. Never thinking about herself,” said Devorkie Shmotkin, Henya’s sister-in-law.
On November 30, the Federmans were out in the waters of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands when their youngest daughter, 4-month-old Shterna Sarah, fell into the marina.
People tell us Henya and her husband Asher jumped in the water to save her.
Asher came up, but Henya was pulled from the water without a pulse.
A short while later, the baby’s body was recovered.
Now, Henya is in intensive care on life support and her extended family is doing what they can from here, encouraging others to do good deeds, or mitzvahs, in Henya’s name.
“We believe very strongly, we say, ‘think good and it should be good.’ And it will be good. That's what we are thinking right now,” said Shmotkin.
Henya’s sister-in-law says the family is grateful for everyone’s support, prayers and mitzvahs and she says that one little act can make a big difference.
“People are good people. It makes us feel that the world is a really good world and people are good and they want to do good. And we see it now, unfortunately in this time and we hope that we'll see it again,” said Shmotkin.
There is a fundraiser to help the Federman family, along with a page dedicated to doing Mitzvahs for Henya.
