Beit Goldschmidt: Intensive-Care Closed Facility for Adolescent Girls

Located in Mevasseret Zion, Beit Goldschmidt is a closed facility giving intensive care to girls, aged 10 to 15 years old. All the girls have suffered core damage, severe neglect, violence, sexual abuse etc. This is expressed in a very high anxiety level causing behavioral disturbances such as eating disorders, promiscuity, violence and suicidal tendencies. Beit Goldschmidt gives the girls an intensive therapeutic environment 24 hours a day.

As a result of their painful pasts, the girls do not trust those around them, and this is reflected in their disturbed behavior. Our main task is to help them rebuild their faith in those around them, and we do this by providing a response to the girls' physical and emotional needs, while helping them develop appropriate boundaries. The focus of our work is, therefore, on the girls' relationships with their carers and the structured routine which enables them to experience the world in an organized and secure way.

At the home, the girls receive intensive therapy to facilitate their emotional and psychological recovery. In order to guarantee individual attention for every girl and to create the right therapeutic environment, Orr Shalom maintains an experienced professional team, including a director, house-mother, psychologist, social worker, qualified counselors and National Service volunteers at Beit Goldschmidt.

Beit Goldschmidt girls study at the Beit Magalim Multi-Purpose Education Center, close to the home. The school is an integral part of the therapeutic environment, with most of the teachers also serving as staff in the home in order to develop a sense of continuity between the two frameworks.  Beit Magalim is a small school and the emphasis is on individual work with each girl. The girls study the regular core subjects such as Hebrew, mathematics, English, geography, and history, and also participate in enrichment activities, such as yoga, art, and a weekly trip to the Israel Museum.

Beit Goldschmidt is located in a large home in Mevasseret which was generously donated in 2004 in honor and in memory of Alfred and Kaate Goldschmidt-Schwabe by their loving daughter and son-in-law Ruth and Bruce Rappaport and family.

Beit Magalim is housed in a historic building kindly donated to Orr Shalom by the Jerusalem Municipality, and renovated through a generous gift from the Steinberg-Brodie family via the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and UIA Canada.

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