Orr Shalom History

Orr Shalom was founded by Gottfried Muller, who had always dreamed of transforming the lives of needy Israeli youth. He approached a young couple, Hal and Shelly Cohen, and convinced them to start a home in Israel. At the time, children-at-risk who were removed from their homes were sent to large youth village. The Cohen's believed in a more intimate and more homely solution. With Muller's help, they took in ten children-at-risk and approached the Ministry of Welfare for support. After some persuasion, the Ministry of Welfare gave them a permit to establish the first Therapeutic Family Group Home. Six months later, the Ministry of Welfare saw that the children were advancing surprisingly well, and in 1980 Orr Shalom was officially born.

By 1990, the organization had grown to four Therapeutic Family Group Homes and the Reut Intensive-Care Home for Boys, caring for a total of 46 children.  Over the next fourteen years, Orr Shalom grew, opening Therapeutic Family Group Homes, Adolescent Girls Homes, Beit Goldschmidt Intensive Care Home for Girls and prevention programs across Israel.

In 1994, Orr Shalom's Therapeutic Foster program was established in order to radically improve out-of-home care of children and youth with a psychiatric profile who had been removed from their biological homes. Prior to this program, these children had been institutionalized as no foster care framework was geared up to care for them. This pioneering program enabled these children to grow up in therapeutic foster care families in the community with the involvement of their biological families, instead of being placed in an institution. 

Following the success of the Therapeutic Foster program, in 2004, Orr Shalom was awarded the government tender for foster for Israel's central region, making it the largest non-profit organization in Israel caring for at-risk children and youth who have been removed from their homes.

While we have now steadily increased the number of children for whom we care to 1,300, Hal and Shelly Cohen, whose vision and commitment created Orr Shalom, still serve on our General Assembly as two of the six founding members of Orr Shalom.

Click on the following link to donate.