Homeless At The Western Wall

The stones of the kotel give little shelter for a homeless woman and her child.

Meet the homeless woman who lives at the Western Wall
Orly Vilnai • Ha'aretz 

Every night, when most families are getting ready for a warm night's sleep, they arrive at the plaza in front of the Western Wall and find a spot next to the stairs, near to the men's section. At three in the morning, they move over to the tunnel, which is open between 3 A.M. and 8 A.M. There it is not so cold; there they can sleep. 

At 8 A.M., they get up, wash their faces and take a bus, and then another bus, until they reach the Housing and Construction Minister's bureau in the center of Jerusalem. That is where they remain for the rest of the day, at the foot of the building. They don't shout and they don't provoke anyone, they merely sit there. A woman and her child, alone. Just so that they should see them, those important people who work in the building, and not forget them. 

Annetta (not her real name) and her 13-year-old son have been living in the street now for a month and a half. There is not a soul in the Housing Ministry who is not familiar with their story. There is not a soul who does not feel for them. But still there is no one who will end this. 

Annetta does not have the typical profile of a homeless person. She is a strong woman who has worked all her life and raised three children alone. For the past two years, she has been working full-time as a rehabilitation nurse in a private hospital in the Sharon region. She is so well-liked and appreciated that her bosses at work are keeping the job open for her until she manages to arrange housing. They know she is currently living in the street and that it is not clear when this will end, but still they are waiting for her. Were it not for the beatings, she would surely be a success story today. 

He always came back 

It all began when she turned 15. The daughter of ultra-Orthodox parents who had immigrated from the former Soviet Union, she was forced to marry, and the beatings started immediately after that. He would punch her, hit her with shoes, pots, a carpet beater and anything he could lay hands on; he would extinguish cigarettes on all parts of her body. This is how her pregnancy passed, and the birth, and almost two years. From time to time, the police would come and take him away, but he would always return and break everything in his path. 

One day she picked up the boy and left, filled with hope that she could start a new life. She received a divorce and began working as a caregiver on a kibbutz. One of her co-workers introduced her to her brother. He was 20 years older than her, and looked like a man who would help raise her son without making problems. After the scars of the past, she insisted on drawing up a written financial agreement with a lawyer before they were married. However, very soon, life once again became hell. 

He was jealous of her and began imposing a reign of terror. It did not improve even when she bore him their first joint child, or when, shortly after that birth, he once again made her pregnant. Everyone surrounding them kept insisting they should make peace, but Annetta decided to leave. In the midst of her pregnancy and with two children, she once again sought a new life. However, her husband found her and asked that they make up. In the argument that ensued, he turned violent and hit her in the stomach; she was rushed to hospital in her 27th week with a fetus in distress. 

A short while later, the baby was born, in serious condition. The doctors diagnosed cerebral palsy and a cleft palate. This meant repeated hospitalizations. Annetta was beside herself: An injured woman alone with a defective baby and two small children at home, the oldest of whom was five. She started missing more and more days of work, the older children did not get enough attention, the problems increased and her income dwindled. 

The Housing Ministry assisted her with a third-floor public-housing apartment in Karkur, without an elevator, next to the cemetery. According to the rules, a handicapped person is supposed to get public housing on the ground floor or an apartment that is accessible to him, but two and a half years of suffering passed until the ministry found a dilapidated apartment on the ground floor in the Beit Eliezer quarter of Hadera. 

Annetta immediately signed the contract, but then the little boy's condition began deteriorating. He was hospitalized but died before he was 3 years old. She relates that that very same day, they called to inform her that she would not get the ground floor apartment because the handicapped toddler had died. 

Since then, eight years have elapsed and the family's condition continues to deteriorate. The children dropped out of school and she had to change jobs frequently, and began working as a cleaner to supplement her income. The younger child was diagnosed with epilepsy and Annetta left her job and took on more cleaning work so that she would be close by. She realized they needed a change. Life next to the cemetery was also not good for them and she wanted to move. 

She once again approached the Housing Ministry. She says they offered her rent support of NIS 1,250, which they would pay when she signed a contract. She brought her contract but they disregarded it for half a year and then approved a mere NIS 436 per month. And once again there were debts, and once again she could not bear the burden. A proud, hardworking woman who never asked for food baskets and donations, but now she feels she cannot go on any longer. 

"This is how it was all the time and it never ended; this is how I managed to go on, to work and to keep the children," she says. "But after four years, I felt I couldn't continue. My mother had taken every loan possible and we still hadn't paid our rent. I understood that was the end." 

A sensitive minister 

Annetta began knocking on the doors of the various government ministries. Vered Swid, the prime minister's adviser on social affairs, helped her, and in August she began receiving the full NIS 1,250. But the debts had already piled up. On December 17, she put her eldest son into a boarding school but took the younger one with her, and the two of them found a spot outside the Housing Ministry in Jerusalem. 

The minister of Construction and Housing, Ariel Atias [Shas Party – Sefardi haredi], is a very sensitive person and knows how to act. His personal assistant, Daniel Gabbai, sat with Annetta and checked the options. The only possibility is a public-housing apartment in Safed or Mitzpeh Ramon. Annetta has a job in the Sharon region and her children go to school there. She has an elderly mother living in a one-room apartment in Karkur, and they help one another. She is not refusing to do things, but she knows that if she moves to Safed or Mitzpeh Ramon, she will lose the little that she achieved. 

Officials in the ministry are well aware of the shortage of public housing. They are genuinely trying to do everything to help her, but the supply of apartments makes it impossible. The minister has instructed them to give her any vacant apartment she agrees to live in, but there is nothing available at a reasonable distance from her workplace and her children's schools. 

The minister is not responsible for the shortcomings of his predecessors, but he also does not have the wherewithal to correct them. So she is out there in the street. People pass by, make a remark and then continue. Sometimes someone arranges them a hostel room for the night. The Jerusalem municipality's welfare department has paid for extra nights, but that is all. 

At the end of the day, she will once again go to the Western Wall to sleep, perhaps because there is constant movement there and security cameras that ensure that no harm will befall them. And perhaps because there are people with hearts of stone and stones with the heart of a human being.

Comments

[esty]

Why cant someone take her in, wouldnt this be a worthy cause for chabad??

[Michelle]

B"H

If you don't have money, Chabad doesn't do a thing for you.

[R]

Why Chabad?? What about the community in which she lived in? The schools? What about the government officials? Do they not know anyone who can help?
Does no one see her when she is at the western wall?
If this story is publicised then maybe more people will learn of her plight and help.

Are there no shelters for women who have been beaten and are trying to get their lives back together?

[harold]

Why cant someone take her in, wouldnt this be a worthy cause for chabad??

Again this preoccupation of FailedMessainites with Chabad. It is nice that they view Chabad as a major chessed organization, but there are a million other organizations, agencies etc that one can ask of. Why not Intel? Their plant is running 24/7. I am sure that the facility is nice and warm and I am sure that there is some room at their facility at night to put up a few women and children.

Homeless should be dealt with on a government level. I was under the impression that Israel has a financial safety net. On more than one occasion Scotty laments that the chassidim don't work and live on the dole, why can't these homeless also get on the government welfare system?

[Bill]

I am surprised that the Fundamentalist Orthodox didn't protest the fact that this female is sleeping, in public, next to a male who is not her husband.

[nachos]

Harold, you are right. Chabad should stick to more important things like raising $1,000,000 for the Rubashkin appeal!

[R]

Harold, to get any government help you need an address and bank account first.
That is how it works in the UK and we have a welfare state which alot of people abuse.
If you are homeless you don't get a thing.
So there are half way houses and shelters for people like that, although there are still alot of homeless people who have nowhere to live.
But this woman was getting help with housing before her child died and it seems the government took away her home and didn't bother to find somewhere else before they did that.

[yankele]

Please, this is an indictment of the entire Jewish WORLD, The ENTIRE Israeli society, and Especially the Orthodox. But to turn this into a Chabad thing is reaching. They may be to blame, but no more than any other Israeli charity.

[harold]

But to turn this into a Chabad thing is reaching

One of the key reason for this blogs existance is precisely to bash Chabad. Scotty goes to great lengths to see if any anti-jewish story also has a Chabad connection and if it does he then tries to work it into the story headline.

[Shmarya]

Really?

Then why didn't I do it here?

[esty]

Harold, Shmarya didnt mention Chabad, I did. Why do you assume Shmarya is Chabad bashing? Your ridiculous posts prattling on about stuff thats not been written in the first place make any decent post you do write look suspect.I was asking a sensible question, sorry if I offended anyone however this side of the world the only organisation we hear about is Chabad. If anyone else knows who can help her instead of posting it here get the message to her at the Kotel.

[ML]

Harold,

So homelessness is a government problem, huh? Really? The Torah says that?

[Moisheleh Deh Gunef]

Sorry, Chabad's is there.
They will take every nickel from you giving you beroohes since they have a direct line to B"H.
Don't you dare ask for anything once the gelt is in their account. They will help you pray and see if they can get more from you.
The lady is Mooktzah.
If the lady had money for them she is Kosher and a tzadik.

What's the problem?

[Abracadabra]

Can we figure out how we can help her?

I hereby pledge to donate $100 to her. She can use it as she sees fit - to help pay off her debts, for food, or whatever she wants or needs.

Now, how will I get the money to her? I will make some phone calls to find out if anyone I know in Israel can find her and give her the money for me. It shouldn't be too difficult to find her since the article said where she is every day and night.

Next, we need an organization who will be willing to take tax deductible donations and give them over to her. Americans like when their tzedakah money does 'double' work by not only helping the cause they donate to, but also giving themselves tax refunds. Tax-deductibility will help more people be willing to donate, so, this is something I will look into as well.

I am going to start making phone calls to whatever contacts I have as soon as I finish writing this post.

Can you do the same? Can we brainstorm together to figure out how to help this woman and her sons? We don't have to wait for "them" to help. "WE" are the "them".

Let's make a difference and help someone who had a really bad set of circumstances...

[RJBZ]

...no excuse but...This case has features of an individual with deep psychological and emotional issues...many homeless are in fact mentally ill statistically...she needs a professional case worker...

[Shmarya]

Can we figure out how we can help her?

Right after I posted the story I sent a message to the head of an Old City non-profit I used to work with and suggested a temporary fix for the woman and child.

I did not get an answer.

[sandra]

yeah! they come to the wall to get help. what a joke! let the ' religious help ' them . i wanna see that .

you can only get help from the government who is not religious .

so, what's the point of praying ?

[sandra]

esty,
...... you are absolutely right. if she comes across a chabad 'rabbi' or chabad person . yes, they WILL HELP HER .

not with money . and not finding her a place to live .

but they WILL TAKE HER DAUGHTER into the sect . chabad will TURN HER DAUGHTER chabad to marry her { with a loser } to
PRODUCE 10 kids FOR THE SECT .

that chabad WILL DO .

be aware of a fact . chabad is interested in 2 things .

1- money

......if you cannot give them money . then, they want

2- your children

......* to make the sect MORE NUMEROUS IN NUMBERS = stronger .
......* = TO PRODUCE MORE CHILDREN FOR THE SECT

trust me, i know . i've known chabad for 30 years . i lnow them very well.