Success Stories: The Abitbols from Ashkelon

The Abitbol Family – From Wandering and Despair to Hope

The Abitbol family lives in Ashkelon, earning a respectable living, the father of the family works as a maintenance manager in the local Kuppat Cholim medical center, and the mother is a teacher. On Simchat Torah morning, when they were in the safe room, their home was hit by a missile and almost all of it was destroyed. If anyone has any doubts about the fact that the safe room saves lives, you can gladly connect them with the Abitbol family. The father of the family was in the synagogue with the son, and the mother of the family, together with her two daughters, who planned to go to the synagogue later, ran to the safe room and thus their lives were saved.

The Abitbol family, of course, had to leave the house. They didn't want to be evacuated to a hotel. Past experience has taught them that living in a hotel, an entire family in one room or even two rooms, without a kitchen or living room, with hundreds of other people – was not for them. They decided to move to the sister of the father of the family, who lives in Afula. But that didn't work either so they found themselves wandering from place to place. Every few days, they moved from one family member to another. Until finally they reached Beit Shemesh. They came to a housing unit that is usually rented to young couples, but coincidentally, the owners of the apartment were unable to rent out the unit this year. When the war broke out, the owners of the housing unit offered it, free of charge, to the evacuees. They published it on one of the local news websites in Beit Shemesh, and one of the relatives of the Abitbol family, who lives in Beit Shemesh, saw the moving post, and immediately connected the owners of the housing unit with the Abitbol family.

That very day, the Abitbol family moved to Beit Shemesh, and finally, after a few weeks of wandering, they could rest a little. The next day, the father of the family turned to the rabbi of the synagogue and asked him if he could help the family in any way. The rabbi, of course, helped a little, and in addition, handed him a list that had been published in Beit Shemesh only two days earlier of all the organizations that are helping the evacuees. The mother of the family was determined to take care of the family but was very ashamed to reach out and get help. In her eyes, begging and receiving a hot meal from a soup kitchen are out of the question, and when her husband brought her the paper he received from the rabbi and she began to read, the list of organizations that help the evacuees stood out Lema’an Achai, which set itself the goal of lifting the families out of poverty and not just giving them charity and a hot meal.

The entire Abitbol family showed up at the Lema’an Achai office. There was no need to elaborate. Their distress was evident to every eye. A social worker was called from home, there was a great need to give them hope, to help them get out of a reality of survival to a reality that they see light at the end of the tunnel. It was clear that they would have to be helped for a long time, since, even if the war ended quickly, it would still take a long time for the Abitbol family to make the apartment, and in fact, the entire building in which they lived, usable.

The Abitbol family received a very loving embrace from the entire staff. They received financial counseling, mental health treatments, and technical help. Lema’an Achai even provided them with mentors for the children. They are feeling so much at home that they began to consider staying in Beit Shemesh permanently and renting out their apartment in Ashkelon after it is renovated. Some of the Abitbol children come from time to time to volunteer, and their parents have found temporary jobs. The Abitbols call the Lema’an Achai team the 'Family of Angels'.