Adopt a Family Foundation

2023 March Newsletter

3/6/2023

Adopt a Family Foundation

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March 2023

We hope your 2023 has been off to a good start!

We’d like to take this opportunity to wish you health, success and happiness!

Thank you for all your love and support in 2022. With your help, we were able to achieve so much!

And this is what we have accomplished since our Gala last September…

As the situation tenses up in Southern Israel and Jerusalem in particular, we have been in close touch with all our families

We have maintained our financial support to our families for the Holidays…we are about to send our support for Pesach.

Twice a year, each family adopted by our Foundation receives a symbolic check of $180 to celebrate the Holidays.

We celebrated a birth with joy

Adopt a Family Foundation sees our families as part of our community and follows each member throughout the years. We were thrilled to welcome little Alma into the world and the family was so grateful for our financial gift!

We offered another educational scholarship

Tamar started a degree in physical therapy at Ben Gurion University. We offered her a scholarship of $1,500.

We provided therapy sessions to allow a young mother to better cope with the tragic situation she is facing, after the murder of her mother-in-law.

We sponsored 2 ping-pong tables for the school in Sha’ar Hanegev, to provide additional entertainment for students.

We hosted a Hannukah party in Mishkan Ella in Sderot for our families.

The highlight of the past year was the get togethers we held in Israel in November.

There is nothing better than face-to-face connection. Our families were so welcoming and grateful for their relationship with Adopt a Family Foundation. We organized a gathering for our families from Sha’ar Hanegev and Sderot at the Argaman wine house in Kibbutz Nir Am. We were very graciously welcomed by Ofer Liberman, owner of the winery. We enjoyed the spread and the wines, but above all, we loved having the opportunity to spend time with our families after so long!

We also met with Nadav Peretz and Hana Tal, current and previous directors (respectively) of Sha’ar Hanegev’s Hosen Center, as well as Benny Marcovich, director of Gvanim in Sderot. We spoke about the stressful security situation our adopted families and citizens of the South at large live with, and how we can best help. We reviewed the activities we sponsored for the youth of Sha’ar Hanegev and Sderot. We got a better look the structures we donated: the Sensory room, the soccer field’s goals and basketball hoop we donated to the school of Sha’ar Hanegev. These meetings were very enriching as we discussed the benefits of all these activities for the children and thought of new therapeutic activities to provide.

Carine with Nadav Peretz and Hana Tal

From left to right, Aya Halevi, Benny Marcovich, Carine Chitayat

Carine Chitayat was able to visit Benjamin Horgen – our 2021 gala keynote speaker – and family in their village of Tal Menashe. Their generosity and warmth was unforgettable. Benjamin led the way to Esther’s trail, where she was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist.

The experience of walking on her steps was very emotional but deeply necessary. How can we really connect without experiencing it firsthand? Carine was also able to spend a day with Nitza and David Bakal, and Rachel Koren. After such tragedies, the pain is deeply engrained in the hearts of our adopted families, but they all show so much gratitude to us for our emotional and financial support.

None of this could be done without you!

Let’s hope that with this year we can provide all the help needed for our adopted families and the children of Sha’ar Hanegev & Sderot.

Please mark your calendar

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Spring Boutique | April 30

Annual Gala | September 10

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We hope to see you then!

With much appreciation,
The Adopt a Family Foundation Team

2022 July Newsletter

7/26/2022

Since our last Gala in August 2021…

We maintained our financial support for our families for the Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Passover.

Twice a year, each family adopted by our Foundation receives a symbolic check of $180.00 to celebrate the Holidays.

We celebrated weddings and births with joy

Our adopted families are embraced by our program forever. Adopt a Family Foundation is a true family to its families and follows each member throughout the years. It is wonderful to be able to see these families evolve in a positive way with weddings, births, and bar/bat mitzvahs. We love to share their joy and celebrate these life events with financial gifts.

We offered three scholarships of $1,500.00 each

We believe in helping the children of our adopted families pursue their dreams by getting the right education. This past year, we offered 3 scholarships – one for a student in mechanical engineering at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; another for a student in film school at the Academic College of Tel Hai; and a third for a student completing her master’s degree in Integrative Education. Additionally, we are helping a couple pursue their law degree.

We supported activities for teenagers of Sha’ar Hanegev

During the Passover break, we supported activities for 250 teenagers in Sha’ar Hanegev and we are also planning to support summer activities this summer. Due to the on-going Covid situation and the impact of this pandemic on teens, these activities are essential to maintaining togetherness, team spirit and friendship.

We sponsored cycling therapy for 15 teens from Sderot for the second time

The goal of this program is to reduce the general feeling of stress for teens suffering from PTSD, fear and anxiety because of the high-risk situation of the area.

Young children are especially vulnerable to the effects of terrorism on their parents. Parents dealing with their own trauma and anxiety are less capable of calming down their own children who are suffering.

Cycling therapy strengthens the confidence of these teens to spend time away from home in a protected environment and promotes social connections as well as a sense of security.

We are grateful that we have been able to support this program and help the children of Sderot.

We provided 3 of our adopted family members with 10 art therapy sessions and workshop each

Art therapy and other non-traditional therapy sessions have been proven to be very helpful for the members of our adopted families, especially accompanying regular therapy or when the patient doesn’t progress anymore. The art therapy sessions we provided had an important impact on their lives and gave them the right tool to advance through life.

We sponsored a weeklong trip to San Diego for Abigail and Odelia Horgen

Abigail (23) and Odelia (30) are the daughters of Benjamin and Esther Horgen z”l. Esther Horgen, 52, a mother of six, was tragically murdered by a terrorist while hiking in the Reihan forest, near their home on December 20, 2020.

Benjamin gave a heartfelt speech in memory of his wife Esther at our last Gala. When Benjamin arrived in San Diego with two of his sons this past August, he immediately felt that his daughters would benefit from this experience as well. In May, we were able to bring them both here for a weeklong trip. The connection and relationship with Abigail and Odelia were fantastic. It was such an honor to have them here with us, and we are so glad that the trip provided them with new energy and strength.

We are sponsoring the remodel of the mechanical engineering’s student lounge at the Tel Aviv University in memory of Tomer Morad z"l

Tomer Morad was one of the three young men killed in the terror attack in Tel Aviv, on April 7, 2022.

Tomer Morad and Eytam Magini, two friends both aged 27, and originally from Kfar Saba, were at the Ilka bar on Dizengoff Street when a Palestinian terrorist opened fire at the crowded venue. Numerous others were wounded in the attack.

There are no words to describe the magnitude of this tragedy.

Tomer was a student of mechanical engineering at Tel Aviv University, where he often hung out between classes with his friends in the student lounge. They joked about how run down the place was and what it would take to renovate it. It could not happen under sadder circumstances, but his friends wanted to honor Tomer by renovating the lounge and dedicating it in his memory. Adopt a Family Foundation wholeheartedly wanted to support their effort and sponsored the entire project. May Tomer’s memory be a blessing.

All this has been possible thanks to your generous support!
We could not be more grateful for it.

Please save the date for our outdoor Gala – September 18, 2022 – so that we can keep spreading love, care and support.

With much appreciation,
The Adopt a Family Foundation Team

2021 in Review...

1/2/2022

We would like to express our deepest gratitude for your support and commitment to Adopt a Family Foundation, even more so during this unprecedented and challenging time. Thanks to your dedication we have been able to bring light to our adopted families and support valuable programs.

This past year…

We hosted a Spring Boutique outdoors in the garden of Chabad RSF.

What an amazing day we had! The day was a great success thanks to all who came together to support us and to our outstanding vendors! From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!

We responded to the impact of the war in May with additional financial support to all our adopted families. Each of them received a check of $500.00.
We maintained our financial support for our families for the Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Passover.
We offered three scholarships of $1,500.00 each to allow the children of our adopted to pursue their studies.

Against all odds, we were able to provide the ladies of our adopted families a beautiful gathering in artist Shosh Segev’s Sha’ar Hanegev studio, with an evening of connection, creativity and relaxation.

We have been able to sponsor cycling therapy for 15 teens from Sderot.

This specific therapy helps teens suffering from PTSD to work as a team in open space. The program has proven itself to help them gain a feeling of security in open space as well as create social connections. It allows them to get back into society with confidence and move away from their feelings of fear, insecurity, and loneliness.

We planned the launch of a new interest-free microlending program to help our adopted families create or improve their businesses.
We sponsored a week-long trip to San Diego for our remarkable Gala guest speaker, Benjamin Horgen and two of his children, who gave a heartfelt speech in memory of his wife Esther z"l.

On December 20, 2020, Esther Horgen, 52, a mother of six, was tragically murdered by a terrorist while hiking in the Reihan forest, near her home.

To listen to Benjamin’s speech:

Adopt a Family Foundation held its Gala on August 29, 2021.

Guests enjoyed an evening held completely outdoors, with a moving program and a beautiful musical entertainment by Shanee Zamir Omér. The event was co-chaired by Patrice Gold and Kimberly Raoufpur. Adopt a Family Foundation was honored to have Benjamin Horgen as their guest speaker.

The guests also had the opportunity to bid on beautiful art pieces generously donated by artists from our community.

We are grateful to each and every one of you who made this evening a true success!

We are hoping that 2022 will allow us to go visit our adopted families in Israel…

Thank you for your continuous support and generosity in making our work possible.

May 2022 bless you with health, success and happiness.

The Year in Review...

2/4/2020