Read a story and give.
Read these personal stories brought to us by social services professionals around Israel. The names of all applicants have been changed to protect individual privacy. The names of the verifying social worker and agency are real. Photographs are illustrative only.
Irina, 24, moved to Israel with her parents when she was 16. A year later, she moved out of their home and has lived on her own since then. She is no longer in contact with her parents. Irina has supported herself with various jobs over the years but because...
Although both parents work almost full time, the Goodmans’s total income is very low. Meir is a kashrut supervisor at a bakery, while his wife, Leah, spends nine hours a day as a nursery school aid. They have four children, with a fifth on the way. The family is Haredi, but...
Everyone loves Ziv. He has a good sense of humor and is social and friendly. He is motivated to learn and develop and he takes his job, working in the town park, very seriously. Ziv, 24, spends his free hours participating in programs for those with special needs. This framework...
Rebecca did not really mourn after the premature death of her son several years ago; she thought that she was handling the blow well and moved on with her life. But the recent deaths of her parents in addition to that unexamined trauma sent Rebecca into a depression that cost...
Doron is almost 80. In Russia, he held a position as an academic; now in Israel for 25 years, he is retired. Doron and his wife rely entirely on their old age pension, and have no family support. He has a list of medical problems but insists that he is...
Rachel, 40, is a single mother to two young kids. Her daughter, Kayla, 7, has ADD, learning delays, difficulty articulating, anxiety attacks, and low self-esteem. Her 10-year old son, Dov is autistic, and has recently returned to his special education school after several months in a psychiatric hospital. Rachel has...
Benny has been living on his own since he was 14. Now 21, his relationship with his parents is unstable at best. Benny has gotten used to supporting himself. He pays his rent and other needs from his salary as a factory worker. But Benny dreams of doing better for...
Shira, 45, has finally found a job that will meet her needs. It is important to her to work and support herself. she has done so for many years and does not like to ask for help. She needed a position that she could do from home, in order to...
Ivan, 80, worked as an engineer in his native Ukraine, then moved to Israel almost 20 years ago. He lives in a rented apartment with his wife, 75. Ivan receives certain benefits as a Holocaust survivor and has some income through Israeli social security and pension services. However, all of...
Dina works full time in a store and spends her small salary as carefully as she can. But it is insufficient to cover the needs of her five children. Dina and her husband divorced a year ago. He has no job so does not contribute to the welfare of his...
Rina has had one dream since childhood – to study Eastern-style dancing, to teach it, and to perform it in order to make others happy. Nothing brings a smile to her face or lifts here spirits the way dancing does. Life took Rina in other directions, however. She married young,...
Lilach (8) is prone to angry outbursts. She has trouble regulating her emotions. Lilach has been working on these issues with a social worker and a psychologist, but everyone has the sense that there is a deeper source of the trouble. Discovering this would allow the people around Lilach (including...
Project ONWARD 2019
for the benefit of women in distress
Project ONWARD is an ongoing fund, created in order to address the needs of Israeli single mothers and young women who are attempting to overcome the challenges of poor housing conditions and inadequate resources and support. Project ONWARD funds basic needs (fridges, beds, ovens and washers), educational and vocational programs and computers that...
Project BOOST 2018
for the benefit of At-Risk Youth
Through our work with social services departments around the country we know how badly at-risk youth need our continuous support. We have therefore established Project BOOST, an ongoing fund, so that together, we can help them. The goals of Project BOOST are: To empower at risk youth to complete schooling...
Project RESPECT 2018
for the benefit of elderly Ethiopians
We’d like you to meet Moran and Dinah! Moran Yosef is the director of the Seniors Center for Elderly Ethiopian Immigrants (Ha’Moadon le’kshishei Yotz’ei Ethiopia) in Hadera and Dinah is the sports director. There are approximately 600 elderly Ethiopians living in Hadera. In our work with the municipal social services department over the...
Recently Funded Personal Stories
Hillel, 58, is suffering from a terrible illness. The rare affliction has left him with difficulties eating and with a dependence on an oxygen tank. This and difficulty climbing the stairs have made leaving the house almost impossible. In addition, his kidneys are failing from diabetes; when he does go...
Both Abe and Batya suffer from emotional issues that require on-going medical supervision. Nonetheless, Abe holds a full-time job in a factory and does his best to be a good father to the four children from his first marriage and the two from his second. Batya is at home with...
Recently, nine-year old Gaby’s behavior has changed. Always quiet and reserved, she ripped the pages out of a book and sometimes lies on her classroom floor without a word or movement. When her team lost a game, she blamed herself to an extent that was out of scale. Gaby’s concerned...
It is clear to everyone that their four children are the light of Olga and Pavel’s life. The parents do all they can to make sure that their four children will have a good education and strong values. However, the family is in desperate financial straits. Pavel has his own...
Eliya has seven children ranging from age three to age 15. They have seen a lot of violence in their young lives, most of it from their father, directed at their mother. About a year ago, they divorced, after her repeated attempts to live safely with him failed. Most of...
Although Orna has seven children, from three relationships, her mothering skills are poor, so most of them were removed from her care. However, she has a strong relationship with her youngest daughter, now 13, and one of the older boys has come to live with her as well. Orna lives...
Lisa’s eyesight has been declining for years; she is now almost completely blind. In the past, she worked as a cleaner and at other temporary jobs, but these are now impossible for her. She is looking for a position that she can fill despite her vision problems. In the meantime,...
Although Sarah’s parents abandoned her when she was young, they re-entered her life when she was 16 and, despite her resistance, forced her to marry. Her husband was violent toward her, a problem that only got worse after the family moved to Israel from Ethiopia in 1991. At first, Sarah’s...