Beit Hashanti

Beit Hashanti is an Israeli organization that provides shelter, protection, treatment, and long-term support to teenagers and young adults aged 14–21 who are at risk, homeless, without family support, or in life-threatening circumstances. Founded in 1984, it grew from a volunteer initiative into a national network of residential homes offering both emergency assistance and a sustained process of recovery, education, and independent living.

Beit Hashanti’s distinctive contribution lies in treating young people not as cases to be processed, but as individuals who need safety, dependable human connection, and a genuine opportunity to rebuild their future. The organization operates around the clock, every day of the year, and welcomes young people from across Israel and from every religious, ethnic, and social background. They may arrive independently or through a social worker, and the initial response does not depend on a formal referral or a waiting period.

From a neighborhood initiative to a national framework

Beit Hashanti was founded in 1984 by Marioma Klein, later known as Marioma Ben-Yosef. In its earliest form, it opened its doors for Friday-night meals for people living on the streets. The home operated in a Templar building in Neve Tzedek associated with the Walhalla neighborhood. Its first principle was direct and practical: helping a person in crisis begins with opening a door and offering food, safety, and dignity.

In 1992, Beit Hashanti was formally incorporated as a nonprofit organization. Over time, it developed from a temporary shelter into an open residential framework combining treatment within the living environment with personal guidance, emotional support, and help with daily needs. In 2001, the center received recognition from Israel’s Ministry of Welfare. It subsequently worked with professional community services and under the supervision of the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs.

In 2005, Michael Ben-Yosef, who had volunteered at the home and later became Marioma’s partner, joined the organization’s management. In 2009, the youth village Beit Hashanti in the Desert was established near Sde Boker, providing a broader therapeutic and educational setting. In March 2018, a new Beit Hashanti facility opened at 5 Nahum Goldman Street in southern Tel Aviv. Its Moroccan-inspired inner courtyard, large dining hall, activity room, and residential rooms were designed to support a secure and communal home environment.

A third home opened in Jerusalem in June 2025. This expansion reflects the continuing need for specialized services for young people at risk and the organization’s development into a multi-site national framework.

Emergency shelter and a process of change

Many young people who come to Beit Hashanti have experienced physical, sexual, verbal, or emotional abuse. Others have left treatment frameworks, been abandoned by their parents, lost their families, immigrated to Israel alone, or reached adulthood without a reliable support system. The organization first addresses their immediate needs: a place to sleep, food, clothing, school supplies, toiletries, medication, pocket money, and help managing daily life.

After the initial intake, each young person receives an individualized treatment plan. Staff assess the circumstances, emotional and practical needs, and possible next steps. When appropriate, they try to reconnect the young person with family or relevant professional services. When a longer stay is required, Beit Hashanti can provide a stable framework for as long as seven consecutive years.

Support takes place in a family-like living environment. A counselor and one of the older residents help each newcomer during the adjustment period. Later, a staff member works with the young person to establish expectations and formulate a personal plan for life in the home and beyond it. Emotional care is accompanied by educational assistance, support during parent-teacher meetings and medical appointments, help with homework, rights advocacy, and tools for coping with trauma and the effects of past experiences.

Homes with distinct identities

The organization’s three homes share a commitment to safety, personal guidance, and sustained relationships, while each has its own character. The Tel Aviv home offers movement therapy, psychodrama, and activities such as surfing and cycling. Beit Hashanti in the Desert includes a therapeutic horse farm, an animal corner, a hydrotherapy pool, agricultural fields, and workshops in art, carpentry, construction, and sewing.

This range of settings allows residents to experience responsibility, persistence, and cooperation rather than merely discuss them. The combination of treatment, education, practical work, and communal life is intended to restore a sense of competence and agency to young people whose earlier experiences often deprived them of both.

Life after Beit Hashanti

Support does not end when a young person leaves the home. Beit Hashanti helps graduates find housing and employment, prepare for independent life, learn a profession, and pursue higher education. According to the supplied material, many graduates have completed their matriculation examinations, enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces, earned academic qualifications, and successfully entered society as independent adults.

Relationships with graduates continue after they move on. They are invited to celebrations, holidays, and Friday-night meals, and can return for advice, emotional support, or practical assistance. Some former residents choose to train as counselors for youth in distress and join Beit Hashanti’s staff. In this way, the organization creates a continuing cycle of mutual responsibility: those who once received a home and a family network may later become a source of support for others.

Public awareness and community partnership

Beit Hashanti also works to broaden public understanding of youth at risk and to prevent more young people from falling into street life, addiction, or dangerous situations. The organization gives lectures in Israel and abroad on subjects including the prevention of drug and alcohol use and professional work with vulnerable youth. A traveling information stand operates during the summer and school holidays, while the Friendship Tent at the desert village functions as a visitor center where the public can learn about the organization’s work.

Since 2012, an annual bicycle ride of approximately 180 kilometers has traveled from the Tel Aviv home to Beit Hashanti in the Desert. The event raises funds and brings the young people’s story to a wider public. The desert campus also hosts professionals and training groups through the Friendship Tent, and in 2023 it welcomed evacuees from communities near the Gaza border and displaced families. Another initiative, Queen of the Desert, is a distinctive recording studio housed in a bus.

The organization has also supported projects that give residents a public voice and help finance its work. In 2009, a cookbook was published with proceeds dedicated to Beit Hashanti. Cultural projects connected with the homes have documented the experiences and perspectives of young people whose lives are often overlooked in public discussion.

Recognition and public significance

Beit Hashanti and its founder have received broad public recognition. In 2000, the home’s leaders received the President’s Volunteer Award, and that same year Marioma Klein lit a torch at Israel’s Independence Day ceremony on Mount Herzl. In 2007, she was named a citizen of honor of Tel Aviv–Jaffa. She gave a TEDx talk in 2016, and in 2017 CNN selected her as one of its 25 heroes and heroines from around the world.

In 2022, Klein received the Israel Prize for lifetime achievement for her social and community work and her contribution to education. The prize committee noted that she had initiated, established, and operated Beit Hashanti as a nationwide network for people on the margins of Israeli society, without distinction of religion, race, or gender. After receiving the award, Klein said that it represented recognition for children who had been invisible, and that they were her heroes. The statement captures the deeper meaning of the honor: it belongs not only to a founder, but also to the thousands of young people whom the organization has helped bring back into the center of life.

Why Beit Hashanti belongs in Moreshet

Beit Hashanti merits inclusion in Moreshet because it represents an important chapter in the history of Israeli social action: the transformation of a small volunteer initiative into a national framework combining shelter, treatment, education, rehabilitation, and continuing support. Its contribution is measured not only by the number of young people who found refuge there, but also by the opportunities that followed — completed schooling, military service, professional training, higher education, and independent lives.

The organization gives practical form to enduring Jewish and human values: hospitality, mutual responsibility, human dignity, and concern for people pushed to the margins. Through its homes, alumni, professionals, and volunteers, Beit Hashanti has built a community that continues beyond the period of residence. For readers of Moreshet.com, its story matters as an Israeli example of compassion becoming an institution, of young people receiving a real second chance, and of a social organization shaping the lives of tens of thousands while changing the public conversation about youth at risk.