• The Jerusalem Hills Therapeutic Centers
  • 1 Mitzpe St., Kiryat Yearim, Judean Hills, 9083800
  • 972-77-2023400
  • EN
  • HE
  • The Jerusalem Hills Therapeutic Centers
  • 1 Mitzpe St., Kiryat Yearim, Judean Hills, 9083800
  • 972-77-2023400
  • EN
  • HE

JHTC December 2021 Newsletter

An Evening in Memoriam of Dr. Chezzi Cohen

Recently we held a memorial evening honoring the memory of Dr. Chezzi Cohen z"l, who passed away this past August. Dr. Cohen, our beloved mentor, teacher and friend, pioneered and developed the unique innovative treatment methods that have made the Children's Home the leading facility in Israel for residential care and have earned the JHTC international praise.

Before the evening began, the various Home Directors met with Chezzi's family and shared with them insights into their own personal relationships with Chezzi, his long-lasting influence on their work and professional life. They also described the many changes that have taken place in the Home since Chezzi retired but emphasized that his vision still lives on in the everyday work at the Home.

This meeting was followed up by a tour of the Home, guided by Chezzi's granddaughter, who is spending her gap year at the Home, prior to army service. Niva showed her family around, explained about the everyday work and how the unique therapeutic treatment program that her grandfather established, "Therapy in Life Space," is apparent in every interaction with the children. For Niva spending the year at the Children's Home is very special and powerful, a real feeling that she is following in her grandfather's footsteps. The stories and images about the Home that she grew up with, are becoming a reality. Chezzi was aware that his granddaughter would be spending the year at the Home. He shared many stories with her, supported her decision and helped her prepare for her gap year.

For the third part of the evening, colleagues and friends gathered together with the family to share their memories. A great number of current and former employees attended, from different stages in Chezzi's career. A short film with excerpts from several interviews presented the audience with personal aspects of who Chezzi was. This was followed by a few main speakers who spoke about their relationship with Chezzi. They all spoke with great emotion and on a very personal level. A dear friend of Chezzi's spoke of their friendship through poetry. Chezzi's son Eldad spoke about how the family lived at the Home when his father was the director, and how it felt for him to grow up alongside the children of the Children's Home.

Itizik Dvir, a current residential center Director, spoke of how Chezzi nurtured him in a "father and son"-like relationship with personal notes and letters that Chezzi gave him when he was just a counselor. And how, even many years later, Chezzi would call Itzik every year on his birthday. Uri David, the second residential center Director, talked about professional meeting points he had gathered from the memories of longtime employees. Uri was amazed at how Chezzi as director managed to have such a personal relationship with so many of his employees. Throughout the years, and for a long time after he retired, Chezzi would call Uri to see how he was doing and how things were going at the Home. Ilan Bar-Av, the previous director of the Home, and Yehuda Levi, the Chairman of the Board, both spoke of the critical principles of care that Chezzi established and that are still practiced today: the process matters more than the outcome; every staff member is crucial to the child's rehabilitation; the principles of constancy, relationships and communication; institutional rebirth and more.

The event was very powerful and emotional, a meeting of people from different points in the history of the Home that speak the same professional language, Chezzi's language. All the different speakers brought to mind the question of what has been preserved from the treatment method Chezzi developed. After this memorial evening it is clear that Chezzi's principles are just as important and still very relevant today.



Gap year at Jerusalem Hills Therapeutic Centers

Spending a gap year at the Children's Home prior to army service is a unique and powerful experience during which eight 18 year olds that just graduated high school, leave their homes and come to live and work at the Children's Home for the year. During their senior year of High school they go through a very intense evaluation process, due to the high emotional strain of working with the children at the Home. Out of the many applicants, 8 are chosen to take part in the gap year. They come from all over the country, from different backgrounds, with different personalities, different routines, and they are expected to get along in very intense circumstances for 11 months.

Taking part in this type of service is not easy at all. Every Shinshin (their Hebrew nickname) is assigned to a particular group and becomes an integral and significant part of that group's direct staff for the year. They fill a special role, which no other staff member has. Because they are closer in age to the children than the permanent staff members, they serve as a kind of older sibling and sometimes manage to reach children in ways that other staff members can’t. They influence many aspects of the children's daily routines. They mostly spend the afternoon hours with the group, after school is out for the day. The sinshinim feel like they are in a very protective environment, where the staff members help them avoid confrontations with the children. The shinshinim often develop a very personal relationship with each of the children, because the children relate to them differently. They get to know the children really well, through the good and the bad, and offer them emotional support. They are exposed to the children's difficult stories and backgrounds, a very heavy weight to carry at their age. That is why, like any other staff member at the Home, the shinshinim have a wide ranging support system, whether through one on one weekly supervision by a senior staff member, weekly scheduled meetings, or group training with a psychologist and group coordinator. At the end of the day they all come back to their living quarters where they learn to support each other, to unwind, cry, let off steam, be upset and also be happy together. The feeling is, no matter how difficult a day they each had, they won't be left to process it alone.

The shinshinim don't work together on a daily basis, since each is assigned a different group. Therefore it is important for them to have group activities and outings on regular basis, to work as a group. Additionally, the group is in charge of a few major projects throughout the year where they plan activities together for all the children, like Purim and Shavuot.

  



Focus on special programs in Our Special Education School

Throughout the last month all the groups went off campus for day trips. Among the places that were visited were the Prat national park, the aquarium, the zoo etc. For the Shachar group, this is the first time they went out of the Home as a group, since this is their first year at the Home. The children and staff were all very excited in the weeks prior to the visit, and the outing involved much planning and preparations. Since a visit to the zoo, (for the first time for some of the children), not to mention the actual experience of going off campus can be very overwhelming, each staff member was paired with a child prior to the trip to help the child prepare emotionally for the experience. Each child, with the help of his partner, chose an animal to study and then presented it to the group before the day of the trip. This is a very important part of the process, in which the children develop a sense of belonging, success and satisfaction. The visit itself was wonderful, besides seeing the different animals, the group took a ride on the zoo train and even the weather was welcoming.



A visit to the Biblical Zoo

We recently held an exciting ceremony concluding a year of volunteering by 4 girls who are serving National Service at our special education school. The girls' parents came to see and hear about the significant role that these girls play in the lives of the children at the Home. As part of the national service program, each of the 4 groups in our elementary unit has a volunteer who accompanies the group on a daily bases throughout the school year. The girls go through an evaluation process prior to acceptance into the program, due to the high emotional strain of working with the children at the Home. Once accepted, they are an integral part of the unit, significant for the staff, and especially for the children. They fill a special slot, which no other staff member has. Because they are closer in age to the children than the permanent staff members, they serve as a kind of big sister and sometimes manage to reach children in ways that other staff members can’t. They influence many aspects of the children's daily routines. In the morning they are part of the direct teaching staff at the school, and twice a week they also enter the cottage in the afternoon and help there as needed.



The Minister of Culture and Sports visits the Home

Chili Tropper, the Minister of Culture and Sports, recently came to visit us. During the visit the minister took the time to learn about the work that is done at the Children's Home, in particular the cultural and sports programs. He attended, and even participated in, a sports class, and visited the music room, where the school choir performed two songs for him. The children, who were very excited, sang wholeheartedly and everyone in the audience was moved by the performance.

Here are Mr. Tropper's thoughts on the visit:

"The children and I did some pushups together in the school yard. I met children that in their short lives have managed to collect enough scars and pain for numerous lifetimes.

But I also saw in them sparks of light and fragments of hope. I met staff members that envelop these children, they don't give up, and help realize this light and hope.

Thank you for a meaningful visit."



Yoga as Part of Gym Class

One of the gym teachers at our Special Education School has started incorporating Yoga in her classes. On a personal level she is very connected to the ways of Yoga and decided to introduce it to the children, because it is said to help people dealing with post-trauma. At first the children had mixed feelings about Yoga, but now that they have adjusted to it, it has become a regular part of the lesson and they are totally involved. The yoga that is practiced is mostly asanas; various postures that require balance and coordination, contribute to flexibility and blood flow, connection with the earth and oneself. The various yoga poses are adapted for children, and are given names that children can connect with. For example, the position of the fetus is known to children as the position of the mouse. The last 5 minutes of each sport class are dedicated to shavasana which is the corpse position or as the kids call it, the star position, a position of relaxation and release. Seeing the children lying on the floor quietly and relaxed is a wonderful moment that doesn’t happen much throughout the school day.



Promoting Art and Culture Education

Exposure to knowledge and content of arts and culture is very important and therefore is an integral part of the curriculum at our special education school at Jerusalem Hills. Through this program, the children are exposed to a variety of art fields that allow them to express themselves verbally as well as non-verbally, to heal and help raise their confidence and self-esteem and take them on a journey to different worlds. The children are exposed to realms that were not previously available to them. This is in order to help advance the children, help them obtain academic achievement, and arouse their curiosity. Throughout the work with the children in the various fields of art, we occasionally discover special talents, children with an impressive voice, whether in photography, painting, written expression, etc. We endeavor to provide the best conditions for these children to express their talents, such as going to a drawing class at the Israel Museum, receiving excellence scholarships and more.

Exposing children to art and culture is a significant part of the school experience and it instills them with pride and inspires them to express and represent themselves. The school allocates many resources in order to promote the various arts. The school has 4 art studios, a music room equipped with many musical instruments and psychodrama class. There are cultural activities within the school such as meetings with authors, visits by musicians, theatrical performances and more. Additionally, the children go on cultural field trips, such as visits to the Israel Museum, Yad Vashem, the Israeli Knesset, the Herzl Museum and more. These visits are very substantial and meaningful for the children. Besides the actual visit, where they learn about culture, art and history, the children experience going off campus, sometimes on public transportation, where they learn how to pay for the bus, what stop to get off at, etc. Many times the visits to the Israel Museum are done in small groups of 5 children which is a very intimate and personal outing, and the whole experience is much more relaxed. Since most of these children don't get to visit these venues with their families, it is important to us that they do experience it, like other children their age.

The art program in the school includes dance, carpentry, photography, film, music and art. The dance class is divided into a boys' and girls' class, in two age groups. Through dance the children improve their self and body image. They are exposed to different styles of music and dance, learn different dances and even perform in front of the whole school.

Some of the boys and girls go to the Musrara school for a photography workshop once a week. They experiment with photo techniques, learn how to operate a camera with all its functionality, develop images in a darkroom and more.

There is also a video workshop at the school, where they are exposed to rich content and the importance of video as a tool through which different messages can be conveyed. The workshop allows for the children to express different capabilities; shooting, editing, directing, acting production and more.

There are children who attend polymer clay and carpentry workshops in which they experience success through art and where they are exposed to new fields and mediums. The workshops are optional for the junior unit children, and are done in small work groups.

Besides the optional workshops, each child in the Home receives two weekly hours of art therapy with an art therapist with extensive training. During these classes the children are exposed to different artists, different media and techniques. Art is a tool for creating a successful and empowering experience for these children, whose world is emotionally complex. Through art, they process content and emotions in a creative way. At the base of the art therapist's work is the recognition that art is a healing tool and the importance of creation, illustration and symbolization to the child's development. The children are invited to experiment and create out of their inner world in a well-equipped room with many and varied creative materials as well as view masterpieces and works by their friends.

Music also has a significant place in the school curriculum. Music lessons are held in our music room, filled with various musical instruments. The children learn to play the various instruments, sing, write songs and compose. The lessons open up a musical realm to the children in which they express their inner world and emotions.

In addition, there is a school choir, which has been active for more than 10 years and is accompanied by the music teacher and a school teacher. The choir performs at various school ceremonies and participates in a yearly education choir convention. Through the choir, the children are exposed to many cultures as well as to famous Israeli writers and composers.