b'A Very Large Israeli Family Needing HelpThe 242 youngest children who currently live at Beit Elazrakiarepartofanextendedfamilyof533 childrenwhohavebeenorphanedorcamefrom troubled backgrounds where their parents may have beenincarceratedorhavedrugorotherserious issues. Some of the children were beaten, abandoned and/ormolested.Incredibly,almostalloftheir parentsweretreatedinasimilarmannerbytheir parents.Whatahorriblelegacy.533childrenwho came to Beit Elazraki broken. Yehuda Kohn has found a way for each of the children to feel partofafamily.Eachchildisgiventheloveandrespect necessary for them to grow to be happy productive adults. Yes, the bedrooms look like dorm rooms and the dining room looks likeaboardingschoolorcamp,butthesmilesofinner contentment that we saw showed us that these kids were getting a chance to grow up as normally as possible. There are birthday parties, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs and weddings. Weddings? Yes, weddings. At 18 most Israelis go into the army, but on many weekends, they go home. When they have 2 weeks leave they gohome.Whathome?Thehometheygrewupin.Theonly homethatmanyofthesechildrenhaveeverknownisBEIT ELAZRAKI.Andafterthearmywhentheothersoldiersgo home,wherearethesoldiersthatdidntgrowupwiththeir parents and siblings supposed to go? And when it is time to makelifesdecisionsandtherearenoparentstoguide them? Yehuda and his staff are there for them. WhiletheIsraeligovernmentgivesYehudafundingforfoodandlodgingandsomeother basic necessities, they only give that for the care of the under 18-year-olds. A family of over 500 where there is only basic funding for 242 and no funding for almost 300 more?? Sadly, there cannot be total normalcy because these children are not being brought up by their parents and living at home with their siblingsbut the love and attention they get from the incredible staff is preparing them to grow to adulthood, have successful relationships, and finally break the cycle of personal horrors that they had with their parents, and many of their parents had with their parents. The staff is there to help ALL 533 members of the family. Generousdonorshavepurchasednearbybuildingssothereisatleastshort-term housing for the older members of the family who are either in the IDF or in National Service. What a waste it would be to have invested 10 or 15 years guiding the young ones through adolescence and not be there to guide them through those last steps to adulthood. There are so many things that need to be done to ensure that the children of Beit Elazraki escape the cycle of horror that was to have been their destiny. 21'