Bayith Lepleitot Inc

Bayit Lepletot, which means a home for refugees, was founded in 1949, soon after the Second World War, when the European holocaust refugees came pouring in, legally or illegally, to the shores of our Homeland. There was then a desperate need for a warm and understanding home for stranded, broken, orphaned children - children whose parents were killed by Hitler, sometimes a single survivor of a family or a couple of an entire city. This institution started with 7 little girls in a small basement apartment, where the floors got flooded during the rainy season. These refugee girls were raised, cared for lovingly, cured, married off and started on raising new families. Girls Town Our "Home" has grown with the needs of the times and situations. The refugee children have grown and are today happy mothers and grandmothers. We now care for hundreds of children in three dormitory buildings: Bayit Lepletot, in the heart of Jerusalem, a smaller building behind it and Girls Town Jerusalem. The children there come from 32 different countries all over the world: Iran, Morocco, Yemen, Tunis, England, Belgium, South Africa, Russia, Ethiopia, our local Israeli children, etc. etc. ... and from varied tragic backgrounds: complete orphans, part orphans, children from broken homes where a mother or father is physically incapacitated or mentally or emotionally ill, children who have never known the security of a close-knit family or the love of parents. These children enter our Home from the tender age of 3 and up and stay until they are married and/or are old enough to go out and start independent lives of their own. when they become brides they are outfitted for life outside the "Home". An average of 25-30 weddings are celebrated here annually. Our Educational Center, which was established 20 years ago on the premises of Girls Town Jerusalem, enables the girls to choose from a variety of subjects - both Academic and Vocational - the vocation most suited to them. when leaving the Orphanage, the girls are secure in their confidence of being self-supporting. Source: http://www.tachash.org/girlstown/