Susan's House: A Refuge for Jerusalem
August 07, 2008
Lynn B. Edelman
Jewish Federation Feature
Lynn B. Edelman
Jewish Federation Feature
A visit to Susan's House -- an innovative program for Israel
Here, young people who turn to the streets to escape physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse from a home situation receive the help they need to turn their lives around.
Executive director Avital Goel terms the program a "holistic solution to working with high-risk kids."
He explains that the teens accepted into this initiative learn the skills they need to complete the various jobs scheduled in the art workshop, enjoy meals prepared by their fellow crew members, earn a salary, and discover how to budget their earnings and save for the future.
Goel works closely with social workers, who provide group and individual counseling and assistance in finding safe, secure housing, as well as volunteers who work with the young people as mentors.
Just off the workshop is an attractive showroom, where the high-end glass jewelry, stationery and Judaica created by the young workers under the tutelage of Susan's House artists-in-residence is displayed and available for sale. Teams of workers help market the products they produce at area malls and expositions.
In the process, they develop self-esteem and begin to believe that they are worthy of a second chance at life. Susan's House, which operates with a $300,000 budget and five full-time staff, is one of 30 businesses under the aegis of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's "It's a Deal" initiative.
This program offers the estimated 35,000 Israeli young people who have dropped out of formal education -- and are not working or in treatment -- the chance to participate in business-oriented enterprises, learn professional skills and reconnect with the community.
Assisting Israelis at risk is one of the chief priorities of the JDC. Since 1914, it has served as the overseas arm of the American Jewish community, sponsoring programs that provide relief, rescue and renewal to Jews around the world. Federations throughout North America view the JDC and the Jewish Agency as their principal partners in delivering essential health, education and humanitarian services to Jews in need across the globe.
Goel's involvement with Susan's House is a true labor of love. He helped to pilot the program with his friend, Eyal Kaplansky, a successful diamond merchant whose himself was a troubled youth, and once heavily involved in drugs. Kaplansky and his wife, Susan, dreamed of developing a facility for teens at risk to honor the memory of a young friend who had died.
A year after planning began, Susan died of cancer, and so Kaplansky continued the project in her memory.
Now in business six years, Kaplansky continues to offer his business expertise to the workers, and has attracted such Israeli notables as papermaker Zvi Tolkovsky and glassmaker Louis Sakolovsky of the Bezalel Academy
In order to give each young person the necessary support and attention, Susan's House accepts a maximum of 14 teenagers in each of the two factory shifts.
While the majority of program referrals come from social workers or parole officers, some simply show up at the Talpiot factory after learning about the program from a friend, relative or graduate.
Success Story
Anna is a Susan's House success story.
The daughter of émigrés from the former Soviet Union , she grew up there with a houseful of brothers and sisters, who her parents adopted as foster children for the money that they could add to the family bank account.
Anna's mother prostituted the girls. When she came to Susan's House, Anna was living on the streets and heavily involved with drugs.
"Anna walked through our doors filled with rage and self-hatred," Goel recalls, adding that "working with glass beads under the direction of our artist in residence helped to burn away many years of neglect and abuse."
He remembers seeing Anna smile for the very first time when a visitor to the showroom complimented her on a necklace that she had helped to create.
"You could see her begin to believe in herself," he said.
Goel describes his work with Susan's House as "very demanding, sometimes frustrating, but deeply gratifying," adding that "we help young people like Anna get a second chance at life!"
Items produced by Susan's House workers are available for purchase by individuals or organizations. To view the wide variety of items for sale, visit their Web site at: www. kys.org.il.
