Yoel Gold Is Being Inspired

[COMMUNICATED] I write these words not as a rebbi, a film producer, or a motivational speaker, but as a grateful talmid. When I was a young bachur in need of support, my beloved rebbi, Rav Dovid Trenk zt”l, was there for me. His positivity and unconditional love were foundational influences on my life. When I didn’t believe in myself, he believed in me.
Rabbi Trenk was niftar in 2019, leaving a grief-stricken family, hundreds of devastated Adelphia and Moreshes Yehoshua talmidim—and an empty space in the heart of the chinuch world. I wondered: could there ever be another like him?

But as one door closes, another opens. Rabbi Trenk’s legacy lives on.

Recently, I had a conversation with Rabbi Trenk’s daughter, Mrs. Devorah Krawiecz, who does for the teenage girls of Lakewood what her father did for boys.* * *
Everyone knows a child who has been rejected by the mainstream educational system, a child who doesn’t fit the mold, or who has been hurt and turned away.
It is these girls whom Mrs. Krawiecz embraces. Her school, Aish Lapidot, gives Lakewood girls ages thirteen to nineteen a place to call their own. Here, they feel worthy, they feel loved and accepted and they feel valued.
Mrs. Krawiecz’s path to Aish Lapidot was pure hashgacha. Three weeks after her father passed away, she got the phone call that changed her life. She had been working for another school, which had closed, and was now out of a job, when she was approached by the founders of what would become AishLapidot. “There’s a group of girls who don’t have a school. We’re ready to set something up, we just need someone to run it. Would you take it on?”

At a glance, Aish Lapidot resembles a traditional Bais Yaakov-style high school. There are Chumash and Navi teachers, the girls have academic schedules—but sitting in the classroom, it becomes clear that something more is happening. Acceptance at Aish Lapidot is unconditional. No one is ever asked to leave because of something they’ve done. Every lesson, every hug, every school activity stresses the message: We love you, we want to create a relationship with you, this is a place where you want to come every day.

Aish Lapidot is a small school, a family. It would be difficult to maintain the all-embracing atmosphere of acceptance and love in a larger setting. Every teacher, every staff member, is committed to that mission. Some called Mrs. Krawiecz unprompted to apply for the job, having heard about the avodas hakodesh she was doing and wanting to be a part of it.

When I ask Mrs. Krawiecz if there are any inspirational stories of progress she wants to share, she’s quick to say “That’s not a goal I have, or a goal I think I should have.” Real growth takes years, and the school’s mission is not about trying to get anyone to change. It’s about enveloping the girls with unconditional love, so that they have the support and the space they need to grow at their own pace.

For most parents, Aish Lapidot is not their first choice. The most frequent question the school gets is, “Is there someplace in between?” But for the girls who attend, it’s a lifeline. One girl had been out of school for two years—an eternity in the life of a middle school student. Since enrolling at Aish Lapidot, she hasn’t missed a day. A few of the talmidos graduated twelfth grade, but didn’t want to leave. Aish Lapidot is their home. Now, they come in the morning to learn and spend time with their teachers before heading out to their jobs in the afternoon. Most of them bring the maaser money from their salaries to Mrs. Krawiecz, wanting to give back to the school that has made them who they are.

For the teachers and hanhalah, it’s a spark that keeps them going. Their greatest nachas is to see their girls flourishing.

Like her father before her, Mrs. Krawiecz has a secret weapon: Rebbetzin Trenk, her mother. Every morning, they have breakfast together, and Rebbetzin Trenk gives her daughter chizuk, reminding her of her mission and giving her the strength to be there for her girls. (To protect the students’ privacy, Rebbetzin Trenk doesn’t know any of their names, or even what they look like.) “I could not do it without her,” Mrs. Krawiecz told me. “She is my foundation.”
Rabbi Trenk, of course, is still her inspiration. How could it be otherwise? Every day she walks in his footsteps—metaphorically and literally. By pure hashgacha, Aish Lapidot operates out of the same school building in which Rabbi Trenk zt”l once taught. The very walls have absorbed years of love and acceptance, the same warmth that Mrs. Krawiecz saw in her father’s house growing up.
There is no formal experience, no college course or education that can imbue a mechanech or mechaneches with those extraordinary middos. If you have it, you have it. For Mrs. Krawiecz, these qualities were learned at home, fostered by her exceptional parents.
Mrs. Krawiecz had never intended to take on the role of teacher and mentor to the struggling children of klal Yisrael. The opportunity had fallen into her lap, so soon after her father’s petirah that it felt like her father saying to her, “You have it in you.” He had handed her a legacy to carry on.

“I saw real love with him,” she told me. “With what he gave me, I am able to be here: with my understanding that [the girls] are so precious, that nothing takes away from their value.
“That’s what he gave me.”

It is an honor to know Mrs. Krawiecz who’s overflowing with care and love for these struggling girls and who’s carrying on the legacy of my Rebbi Reb Dovid Trenk zt”l and it’s a privilege to support her mission.

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