"Spotlight On" Bet HaYeled

Welcome to the official All For the Kids blog! Over next few days we'll be giving you some deeper insight into the foundations that we're raising money for. Today's "Spotlight On" comes from Yitz Feigenbaum at the Bet HaYeled Merav Children's Group Home (MCGH).

• When was the MCGH established?

  In the early 1990s, the members of Kibbutz Merav began to consider several options for long-term educational and social programs. By 1994, the decision was finalized to open a family-home for children from distressed backgrounds. In September of 1994, the Merav Children’s Group Home opened its doors.

• Where are the children from?

  The children of the MCGH (also known in Hebrew as “Bet Hayeled” or “Betaynu”) come from all over Israel. Social service agencies faced with children from dysfunctional or non-supportive families have turned to MCGH, via the Israeli Family court system, and placed children with us.

• Where and what is Kibbutz Merav, and what is its relationship to MCGH?

  Kibbutz Merav is a religious community in the north of Israel, located on the Gilboa mountain range, about 25 miles south of the Sea of Galilee. Sixty families currently live on Merav, which was founded in the summer of 1982. The children of MCGH are a major priority of the kibbutz. The community has sponsored major funding efforts on their behalf, and has allocated both housing and manpower for the care of these youngsters.

• Where do the children live?

  The young people of MCGH live in a two-story home on the kibbutz, with rooms that house one or two children each, in separate boys’ and girls’ wings, a dining area, separate meat and milk kitchens, areas for recreation and study, and an apartment for live-in National Service girls.

• How old are the MCGH children?

  The children currently in the MCGH home are between the ages of 7–18. Most of them have been with the program since its inception in 1994, and have grown up in Merav. The home itself houses 10 children, from grades 1-12.

• What happens to the children when they finish high school?

  So far all MCGH graduates have served either in the IDF or in the National Service framework. We are currently evaluating options for the return of these young people to Merav after serving their country.

• Are the MCGH children religiously observant?

  The children come from backgrounds that are at least familiar with the basic framework of traditional Jewish life. In the framework of MCGH, the children all adhere to a religious lifestyle, and learn to respect the observant way of life.

• Where do the children go to school?

  Most of the children attend the nearby Sdeh Eliyahu religious day school for grades 1–6. Once the children reach junior high, the MCGH program directors work with each child to best match each boy or girl with a suitable secondary school—some continue in Sdeh Eliayu through high school, others attend the yeshiva high school in Beit Shean, or the girls high school in Tiberias.

• What types of extra-curricular activities do the MCGH children participate in?

  Here, too, the MCGH children integrate with the rest of the Merav youth population. Sports activities, art and music classes, and participation in youth movements, both on and off Merav, are the types of activities the children take part in. The MCGH children also are provided with Bar and Bat Mitzvah preparation, as well as individual celebrations, on the kibbutz.

• Do they need tutors?

  Tutors are available for the MCGH children both on and off the kibbutz. Over the years, numerous kibbutz residents have served as tutors for the children in such subjects as English, math, and Judaic studies, and when necessary, the children have also been provided external assistance with their schoolwork.

• Do they visit their parents?

  Most of the children from the group visit their parents on occasion, but this is obviously a very sensitive issue, and must be monitored carefully, as well as legally. Some children’s family members visit them on Merav, while others never see their families at all. Whenever it is possible and safe, we encourage visits between the children and their families.

• What is the relationship between the MCGH children and the families and other children on Merav?

  All of the MCGH children have “adoptive” families from the Merav community, where they can spend free time. The integration with the children of Merav is all-encompassing—they go to school together, play together, and attend activities together. The open, accepting atmosphere of Merav and its children has been a major reason for the success of the MCGH program.

• Are there any plans to expand the program?

  The population on Merav is continually expanding, primarily due to the upcoming completion of the first stage of the new neighborhood on the kibbutz. As the Merav community grows, we hope to expand the program, and bring in more needy children to the MCGH framework.

• Who oversees and gives accreditation to the MCGH program?

  Bet Singer – Kfar Yechezkial Children’s Home is the main agency connected to the MCGH. The Bet Singer Foundation is associated with the Ministry of Labor and Welfare. MCGH itself is licensed by the Ministry of Labor and Welfare.

• What’s unique about the MCGH program vis-à-vis other similar programs?

  The MCGH program is unique in both its size and its environment. Our program is designed for a relatively small group of children within a larger healthy community. It is our firm belief that this unique model, which we refer to as “community adoption,” is what allows the children to achieve such dramatic improvement, as we have seen in the youths here on Merav.

• Does the MCGH receive any financial assistance from the government?

  The government provides a minimum stipend for the very basic needs of each child. In addition, we provide supplemental services and equipment to the children, to aid them as they grow and mature within the MCGH framework.

• What are the current private funding needs?

  As the MCGH children get older, the funding needs become more demanding. At present, funds are needed to help pay for clothing, psychological counseling, meetings with social workers, and tuition for private religious schools.

• What type of staff does the program have?

  From day one, the joint MCGH program directors Irit Zucker and Yitz Feigenbaum have worked with the children of the group home, serving as surrogate parents, teachers, guides, and friends. In addition, there are always two National Service girls who work exclusively with the group and live at the MCGH home, often staying for a full two-year term of service.

• Do the children have any responsibilities in the MCGH household, or on the kibbutz in general?

  The children split up and participate in the tasks and chores of the house, as children of any family home do. In the kibbutz community, they take on responsibility just as the other children of the kibbutz their age do—some work a few hours in the petting zoo, others volunteer to work with younger children, either as youth counselors, or in other frameworks, still others take on the responsibility of working in the kibbutz dining hall during community events.

• Who is Aliza Malka?

  Aliza was one of the original MCGH children, who, together with her older sister, came to Merav in September of 1994. In a terrorist attack in August 2001, she was murdered by Palestinian gunmen, when she and some of her friends from MCGH were returning to Merav from nearby Beit Shean where they had gone to eat pizza. She was only 16.