Safe Haven Services for the Jewish Community

The Hebrew Shelter Home provides emergency and temporary housing with on-site client services to Jewish homeless women and children and families. We also welcome Jewish women and children escaping domestic violence. Jewish homeless men are provided temporary housing services off-site. When people are in crisis and are embraced and cared for within their own community they are more likely to succeed. HSH is a safe haven for the Jewish community.

 

What Jewish homelessness looks like

It looks like a frightened mother and her pre-teen daughter, escaping from an abusive husband, who in addition to suffering physical abuse - now suffers from having been forbidden to apply for a work permit, learn the English language or to gain any other tool that would insure independence and the ability to support herself and her child.

It looks like the podiatrist from Mayfield Heights who suffered the crushing simultaneous blows of divorce, debilitating depression and loss of employments.

It looks like a holocaust survivor who is on the waiting list at an assisted living apartment but being discharged from the hospital today with no family to go to in-between.

And, it looks like a young woman suffering from a yet undiagnosed and untreated mental illness, currently unable to maintain employment and rent payments, un-welcomed to live with family, in need of a home environment where she can achieve stability and work long-term with social service professionals association to eventually gain sustainable work and a permanent place to live.

When people are in crisis and are embraced and cared for within their own community they are more likely to succeed. We need your help to refer and support members of the Jewish community back home.

How to access the Hebrew Shelter Home

In the case of Jewish individuals and/or families needing emergency housing, the Hebrew Shelter Home requires that an assessment is completed by social service or mental health professionals to best determine the safety of the individual(s) being referred and the safety and services of individuals already staying at the Hebrew Shelter Home.

The referring agency will review and sign Hebrew Shelter Home admissions forms with individual(s) and contact Ginny Galili (216-401-9925).

Individual(s) will be received at HSH at appointed time, welcomed and orientated to the Home’s environment, services and rules/standards of conduct.

Individual(s) must maintain relationship with your organization, JFSA or Connections on a weekly basis until permanent housing is obtained and a move out date is established.

In the event that the individual(s) violates the rules/standards of the Home, the individuals will be asked to leave the Home and the referring agency will be notified.

Partnership and coordination with local rabbis, community leaders, social service and mental health professionals is vital to insuring a safe and effective environment for all that we serve and house.

For any additional questions or inquiries, feel free to contact Hebrew Shelter Home Executive Director Ginny Galili at (216) 401-9925.
 

Mission

To provide Jewish individuals and families with a safe, temporary kosher home within the Jewish community, and the kindness and help needed to access formal and informal resources.
 

History of the Hebrew Shelter Home

The mitzvah (commandment) of hachnasat orchim is of Biblical origin. Our forefather Avraham left his sickbed to welcome strangers into his tent, teaching us this core Jewish value.

Throughout the shtetls of Eastern Europe, towns provided for needy Jews through a communal hachnasat orchim society. In the late 1880’s a group of Cleveland Jewish leaders committed themselves to fulfilling this important mitzvah by establishing the Hebrew Shelter Home. The Home began welcoming immigrants and those in need as befits a Jewish community. In 1904, the Hebrew Shelter Home incorporated, and became a founding beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland. As the Cleveland Jewish community has grown and moved, so too, has the Hebrew Shelter Home.

From the original location on Orange avenue, to the Glenville area, the Kinsville area, and now in the Heights, the Hebrew Shelter home continues to affirm that there is no Jew who is a stranger.

Wish List

The following items are always in need for the shelter:

Gift Cards for the following to assist with daily living, job search and interviews, setting up a permanent new home etc. Gas Cards, Target Cards, Wal Mart Cards, Calling Cards.

Paper Products - paper towels, paper plates, paper cups.

Washing Machine Products - laundry detergent, dryer sheets for residents use at homes

Office Supplies - copy paper, resume paper, resume envelopes for residents

Toiletries - shampoos, toothbrushes, toothpaste, toilet paper, hair brushes

Clock Radios with alarm features for client rooms.

Books- resume writing, interviewing, job search, interest identification etc.