A most extraordinary and moving encounter awaited us when we entered the seemingly-ordinary law firm in Libertyville, Illinois, where we've been spending the past week and a half, meeting Jewish people at their homes and businesses.

We soon discovered that the attorneys–a father-and-son pair–were Jewish. During the course of our conversation, we inquired as to when was the last time they had put on tefillin. We were surprised to learn that neither of them had ever done so, the son now 40 years old, and the father 65!

After some discussion, the pair decided to each do this mitzvah for the first time. And we were delighted to assist them in celebrating their belated bar mitzvahs!

We shared some words of inspiration in preparation for the upcoming High-Holiday season, and let them know about the newly-established Chabad center in nearby Vernon Hills, IL, by Rabbi Shimon and Rochel Susskind.

After the conclusion of our very pleasant visit, we were ready to head out further on our search for Jewish people, but not before joining our new friends for a special l'chaim in honor of this special occasion. The staff at the office, Jews and non-Jews alike, were all very happy to participate in the celebration and wish the "bar-mitzvah boys" well, as they marked a new milestone in their lives.

The entire office staff joined in the celebration.

Hi everybody,

This little anecdote happened to us this past Friday.

We had been given the address of a Russian-Jewish family who lived on the sixth floor of a large apartment building. In the elevator, we accidentally pushed the button for the seventh floor. Unaware of our mistake, we got off the elevator and knocked on the last door in the hall. A man sporting a flowing muslim robe and a scraggly beard opened the door.

"Excuse me," Chaim said, "We were looking for Jewish people." We began to retreat when he called us back, "Wait, but my wife is Jewish!" We politely asked to speak to her. He called his wife to the door and to our surprise we saw that she was a middle aged American woman.

In the course of our conversation, she told us that she had been married to a Jewish man for thirty years until he passed away. After that, she lost interest in Judaism and eventually married her current husband. She does not consider herself Muslim but is not involved with the Jewish community anymore. We had a wonderful conversation with both of them, left them some literature and went to prepare for Shabbat.

I hope that there will be a sequel to this story, but that's all for now.