The decision was difficult for both the parents and the young bride, Hinda, a resident of the city of Premyshlen in Ukraine (formerly Galicia). When she was still a little girl, she and her cousin Joshua Winter were matched, and she looked forward to the moment when they would be able to marry and establish a home in Israel.
However, when the two grew up, World War I broke out and Yehoshua was drafted into the Polish army. At the end of the war, he returned safely, but with a firm decision: "I saw the intense hatred of the gentiles for the Jews. This is not a place for Jews to live."
The young groom therefore immigrated to America, examined the living conditions there, and sent a letter to his bride's family asking them to join him. The bride's parents found it difficult to come to terms with their daughter's long journey, and they were also very concerned about whether Torah and mitzvot observant Jews would remain in the new continent.
Time pressed. The documents that the groom sent for the bride were about to expire. The parents and their daughter decided to ask the advice of the rabbi of Berjan, Rabbi Avraham-Zerach-Aryeh-Yehuda-Leibush Heilperin, who moved to Lemberg (Lvov) after the war and got to know them.
They came to his residence in the morning. The morning prayer had already ended two hours earlier, but the rabbi was huddled in his room, dressed in a tallit and tefillin, and immersed in his study. The family waited for a long time, but the rabbi was still confined to his four cubits and did not receive an audience.
Suddenly they noticed his associate, Rabbi Yoel Heilperin, the rabbi of the city of Jaslu, and begged him to pave their way in. "Today is the deadline for submitting documents to receive a visa," they explained the urgency.
The efforts have helped. Within a short time, the rabbi greeted them and listened attentively to what they had to say. He asked the bride: "What is your position?" The bride replied quietly: "I will do what the rabbi instructs me!"
The Rabbi of Barjan stood up with all his stature. Because of his old age and weakness, he was forced to lean his emaciated body on both hands, which clutched the wooden table in front of him. He looked directly at his parents and said, "I say you go to America! Hinda'Nyu will stand by her faith in any place and in any situation. With God's help, she will succeed in her marriage, and they will have pious and perfect children!"
A sense of relief filled the parents' hearts. The rabbi's promise allayed their fears. They excitedly said goodbye to their daughter, who had gone to America.
Years passed and the groom's gloomy estimates came true, with the outbreak of World War II. Their family members perished in the Holocaust. Yehoshua and Hinda were saved, thanks to their immigration to the United States.
