Communities

Martha, a member of the Haifa kehilla and director of Daniel House, sent us the following details about Daniel House, a unique old age home in Haifa.

The Luckner Parents' Home in Nahariyah is an institution that was founded by Elisheva Hemker from Haifa in order to provide a home for Christian women, who saved Jews during the second World War. Martha, who manages the home and is a member of the Haifa community, tells us a little about this wonderful institution.. A few months ago, an article about the life of Dr. Gertrude Luckner and her activities in saving Jews under Nazi occupation and helping all those in need appeared on our website (read article). After the war, Dr. Luckner was concerned about the Christian women who helped Jews survive during the occupation, some of whom had married and immigrated to Israel. After the death of their husbands, they sometimes remained without sufficient income. She had then the idea to found a home for these women.This is when the work of Elisheva Hemker began. She arrived in the country as a tourist 45 years ago. Her task was to find out about the situation of these women and if there were a need to establish a home for them. She began raising money that then arrived from a fund of the German Ministry of Finance and from private individuals. In 1976, a house was bought at 24 Szold Street in Nahariyah. The house was surrounded by a garden and was situated close to the sea front promenade, with easy access to the center of town. Among the first tenants were many of those heroes who had endangered their lives in saving Jews and had been recognized as Righteous Gentiles by Yad VaShem.During the first years, when the tenants began to arrive, there was need for cleaning, buying provisions and cooking. Elisheva did all this together with Brother Daniel Rufeisen (of blessed memory), the founder of the Haifa kehilla, and with the help of volunteers from Germany, who came each year. Elisheva not only took on herself the daily care of the house but also served as social assistant. She did all this as a volunteer.Until 1998 (the year of Brother Daniel's death), each Monday, Broth Daniel would come to celebrate mass for the tenants and they always ensured that the holidays were fittingly commemorated.In 1992, Elisheva was named head of the association and she continues to serve as a valued advisor. In 2003, she received a prize in recognition of her life work, bestowed by the "Association for Planning and Development of Services for the Aged in Israel". The prize included a financial contribution, which Elisheva donated to the home.Without family members in Israel, the home was conceived in order to provide an alternative to home and family for the tenants in every way. Each tenant has a private room, including toilet and shower. Most of the rooms have a small balcony or access to the garden. The home functions with a license from and under the supervision of the Welfare Ministry as a home for the aged and the frail. The home has 14 rooms and one of them is meant for a couple, including a bedroom and a living room. The services that are provided include full medical service by a doctor and a nurse, social services, a house mother who is live-in, four veteran and experienced assistants, volunteers from Germany, exercise classes, handicrafts, gardening, outings, cultural activities, cleaning and laundry services. The tenants are served three main meals a day and a snack, all prepared on site, taking into account the preferences and medical needs of each tenant.Today, among the tenants, there are both veteran Israeli Jews and new immigrants, speaking a variety of languages.Beit Luckner24 Szold StreetNahariyahTelephone: 04-9920465(a non profit association)

The youth group, "Desert Flower" is a two year old Catholic group. The names was chosen by the young people who sincerely desire to live like colorful flowers in the desert of our world. We gather together young people linked to our Hebrew speaking communities from all over the country and who are older than 13 years old. We meet once a month in order to savor the beauty of the community experience, in order to learn and pray together. Each meeting provides us with the spiritual strength that enables us to go back to our day to day lives strengthened and renewed. During the summer, we usually go on a trip whose aim is to broaden our Church horizons by means of an encounter with young people from other countries. If you are a young Catholic person who speaks Hebrew we invite you to contact us and we will be happy to bring you into the group! Group leaders Father ApolinaryFather PiotrBrother AlbertoBenny Contact persons: Father Apolinary see hereFather Piotr see here

What is the Center and what is its mission? Tel Aviv-Jaffa is Israel's largest city and the center of commercial, cultural and social life in the country. In 2009, the city Tel Aviv celebrated its 100th birthday. Today, in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, the Jewish modern city par excellence, there are tens of thousands of Catholics (alongside native Arabic and Hebrew speaking Israeli Catholics, there are tens of thousands of migrants, foreign workers and asylum seekers, predominantly from Asia and Africa). The two Catholic churches in Jaffa have valiantly served these migrant populations and continue to do so but they are not sufficient and the city of Tel Aviv itself has no established Catholic presence. In 2009, a group of Filipinos began to rent a hall in south Tel Aviv and named the center they established Divine Mercy. By February 2014, the Center had had to relocate three times. For the last two years, the Divine Mercy was situated in an underground bomb shelter. In March 2014, the Catholic Church began its activities in the Our Lady Woman of Valor Pastoral Center. The building was purchased and renovated thanks to the great generosity of many organizations that help the Church in the Holy Land, to name a few: the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, the German Association of the Holy Land, the Archdiocese of Cologne, Missio, Church in Need, Kindermissionswerk and the German Bishops’ Conference. In addition, many generous contributions were made by other associations and individuals including the Berrie Foundation and pilgrims to the Holy Land, especially pilgrims coming from Vietnam and the Vietnamese Diaspora. Finally, it should be stressed that the faithful of south Tel Aviv contributed themselves by collecting money regularly through a “Build our Own Church” fund. We are enormously grateful. Thanks to the hard work of a devoted team consisting of a developer, a lawyer and workmen, a ruined building in south Tel Aviv was transformed into a center with a church that can seat 250 people, a roof top chapel, two apartments for the Sisters from the Philippines (Saint Paul of Chartres) and Sri Lanka (Perpetual Help) who live in the center and a meeting room. Today, in additional to daily mass, five Sunday masses are celebrated for the thousands of Catholic migrants in the neighborhood. Many other faith activities are held in the center for migrants from the Philippines, Indian, Sri Lanka and Geez rite Catholics (from Eritrea and Ethiopia). Of particular concern are the hundreds of children from Catholic families that are integrated into the secular Israeli, Hebrew language government schools. Local government, Hebrew language schools in south Tel Aviv have hundreds of Christians pupils. The Saint James Vicariate for Hebrew Speaking Catholics in Israel, working together with the chaplains of the Pastoral among Migrants, organizes catechism classes, summer camps and the publication of Hebrew language text books in order to educate a generation born in Israel, that speaks only Hebrew and has almost no exposure to the Church. Today, in 2014, 150 Catholic children are registered in catechism classes given at Our Lady Woman of Valor. The Center is administered by a team under the leadership of Rev. David Neuhaus SJ, Latin Patriarchal Vicar and responsible for the Pastoral among Migrants in Israel. There is still much to do we and we ask the intercession of Our Lady Woman of Valor that we might be granted the ability and means to work more for the migrants in Israel.