By Jeremy Lisitza, Individual Giving Officer
Hut HaMeshulash’s Drop-In Center
Hut HaMeshulash’s Open Space Drop-In Center in the heart of Jerusalem attracts over 1,200 young people every year, of whom 600+ are under the age of 18. The center provides three hot meals a day, showers, a safe place to rest, social care interventions, vocational and skills training, art, and music and theatre therapy 365 days a year.
Warm meals act as a magnet, bringing even the most troubled teenager in from the Jerusalem cold. Once in, Hut’s experienced team of social workers and counselors begin to build relationships with them, exploring their hopes and dreams for the future, and the routes for their achievement. Young people accessing the Open Space can graduate to Hut’s two long-term homes, for young men and young women, or its two emergency shelters, one for young men and one, uniquely, for Ultra-Orthodox young women. From there, they can move into transitional accommodations, before returning to normative society as functional adults. The center acts as a first step on the journey, with the offer of a warm meal as the key to its beginning.
October 7th brought untold tragedy and hardship to the state of Israel and its citizens. For those already on the edge of homelessness, it acted as a final push, displacing them from north and south, and driving them onto the streets of Israel’s big cities. Hut HaMeshulash saw a 20% increase in the number of young people accessing the Open Space Drop-In Center in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy. At the same time, it lost its main source of hot food donations as the King David Hotel closed in response to plummeting tourist numbers. The support of the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee Women’s Circle helped Hut HaMeshulash to survive this upheaval, enabling it to continue to provide three hot meals a day to these vulnerable and traumatized young people.
Providing hot meals is about so much more than simple sustenance. Warm, wholesome meals, cooked with care and served with love, help a young person to feel valued, safe, and worthy of care. A generous breakfast, lunch, or dinner on a cold day, and especially on a holiday or Shabbat night, helps a young person who has lost their way, to begin to re-connect and, in re-connecting, to find their way towards a safe home of their own.
For more information or to join the Women’s Giving Circle, click here or contact Jeremy Lisitza at jeremyL@jfedsrq.org.