In the Bible, Rachel was the second wife of Jacob, and the youngest daughter of Leban. She lived in the 18th Century B.C. and was considered beautiful and lovely (Genesis 21:17). After many childless years, Rachel bore a son, Joseph. While Jacob and his family were traveling to Hebron, at the village of Rahma, Rachel gave birth to a second son, Benoni (Son of my Sorrow). Rachel died during childbirth. She was buried and Jacob erected a pillar on her grave (Genesis 35:20). It was considered a holy place, and today women pray there for healthy sons for their daughters.

Rachel is thought of as a Matriarch of Israel and the ancestress of Ephraim, the chief of the northern tribes. In the book of Jeremiah, which recounts the prophet's opposition to the infidelity of Judah and the subsequent Babylonian captivity, Rachel is seen reaching through history and weeping for her children as they are carried off in bondage in Babylon.

Her cries echo into the New Testament as Matthew applied her mourning to the slaughter of the Holy Innocents (Matthew 2:18). The Lord assures Rachel that her lost children will return from exile and that families will be reunited through the embrace of a loving God. Such is the vision of Project Rachel.

(Rachel is represented here in a statue of a woman kneeling with a bouquet of roses. Her face turned upward, with an expression of hope. This is the Rachel Monument located at the Memorial to the Unborn, Resurrection Cemetery, Clyde Park and 44th St SW, erected through the generosity of the Knights of Columbus. It is a healing place for anyone who has lost a child. The bronze statue sits atop a concrete base bearing the inscription: "Rachel weeping for her children because they are no more." Jeremiah 31:15.)

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