To Be Just Like Other Girls
The
Rubin-Zeffren Children’s Home in Kiryat Sanz,
Netanya, was founded in 1961 by the late revered
Rebbe of Sanz-Klausenburg when one evening, a
desperate widower abandoned his five small children
at the Rebbe's home. Over the years, this
institution has sheltered hundreds of orphans as
well as “living orphans,” children abandoned by
parents who were unable to care for or raise them.
Some of the children had been abused, while others
were removed from their homes by Court Order. Others
were abandoned or neglected by their parents, and
still others were orphaned by heinous terrorist
attacks.
Many of the children sheltered in the Home have
been referred by social workers all over Israel.
Nearly all the girls are suffering from very serious
academic, social, health and emotional gaps. A
special team made up of the House Mother,
Educational Director and live-in counselors remain
with the girls day and night. They are assisted by
an interdisciplinary support staff of professionals
(psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists) who
help provide the girls with a normative, family-like
atmosphere, just like any other girl.
This is Their Home
The
girls receive very warm, devoted care here at the
Home. The administration is concerned to provide the
very best in fulfilling the girls health,
nutritional, developmental and educational needs, to
provide for all that they lack.
Dozens of devoted staff members act as the girls
and young women’s father, mother, big brothers and
sisters and life mentors. Girls who come from
distressed or broken homes receive special care, so
unique in these times, with the professional and
experienced staff devoting their best energies and
abilities, pouring their heart and soul into the
work of acting as substitute parents. The staff
provides all the warmth they can, since the
children’s biological parents are gone or unable to
care for them.
From Kindergarten to the Marriage Canopy
Although
care in Israel under Israel’s Youth Law is mandated
only to age 18, like good parents, the Rubin-Zeffren
Children’s Home, continues to provide for the girls
after high school. The Home helps to find good
matches, finances the wedding celebration, and helps
set up the young couple’s home and furnishings,
providing assistance until the young couple can
provide for themselves. Over the forty years of its
existence, the Kiryat Sanz Children’s Home – now the
Rubin-Zeffren Children’s Home – has married off many
of its students, who have set up beautiful Jewish
households. |