These are frequently kids who have run away from dysfunctional family situations, having fled from violent parents and, sometimes, life-threatening circumstances. Substance abuse often follows as the children find themselves cast out on the jagged edges of society, exposed to all manner of danger and exploitation.<\/p>\n
Shanti House opened for business in 1984 after its founder, Mariuma Klein, learned of the severity of the problem across the country. This wasn\u2019t the result of in-depth professional research studiously overseen by academics.<\/p>\n
![\"THE](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/726216.jpeg\"\/)
THE NEGEV\u2019S Shanti House center offers at-risk youngsters therapeutic horseback riding, hydrotherapy, art therapy, and communing with nature. (credit: ALON GREGO)<\/p>\n
Klein had a very real, firsthand understanding of the plight of hundreds of youngsters fighting for survival in a world that didn\u2019t seem to care or, at the very least, offered little in the way of solutions to their predicament.<\/p>\n
Now, sexagenarian Klein has stood steadfast at the helm of her life\u2019s work throughout, navigating her way through trying logistical, financial, and emotional rapids to keep the institution afloat. She is not just some kind soul extending a hand and a hug to those less fortunate than herself.<\/p>\n
She has been there, and been through all of that, and has a very personal handle on what the residents of Shanti House endured before they walked through the institution\u2019s welcoming gate \u2013 battered, bruised, scarred, and without too much trust in the adult world around them. A world that, at best, had turned its back on them and, at worst, had subjected them to cruelty and torment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was approaching the end of my military service,\u201d Klein recalls in her book The Shanti House Way, which came out in 2015, with an updated version released in 2024. \u201cI was not yet 20, and my partner was 25 years older than me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
They were living in her boyfriend\u2019s former caf\u00e9 when Klein suddenly came up with the idea of opening up the place to \u201canyone who needs a place to eat a Shabbat<\/a> meal, anyone who wants to sit down together with living souls hungry to sit around the same family table.\u201d<\/p>\n This still-developing country may have plenty to crow about \u2013 inter alia, its trailblazing hi-tech industry, the excellence we continue to churn out across all artistic disciplines, and, let\u2019s face it, the mere fact that Israel is still a going concern. But the socioeconomic divide continues to widen and deepen, leaving many Israelis unable to buy homes and others struggling to keep up with soaring rent.<\/p>\n The youngsters Klein and her Shanti House team cater to don\u2019t have that problem, for all the wrong reasons. They simply don\u2019t have anywhere they can call home in the core sense most associated with that concept. That is, until they step through the portal of one of the Shanti House facilities, either on their own initiative or pursuant to a referral from the welfare authorities.<\/p>\n Shanti House has gained recognition among other similar facilities\u00a0<\/p>\n Shanti House is now an officially recognized institution to which cases are referred by other facilities, including those of state ilk, that find they are unable to help. Klein was awarded the Israel Prize in 2022 for her sterling work over so many years and was one of the torchlighters at the state Independence Day<\/a> ceremony back in 2000. There are other kudos in her impressive bio.<\/p>\n All of which is a far cry from the days when she was in dire straits herself, mirroring the desperate life circumstances that continue to bring teenagers to her doorstep in a last-ditch attempt to right their existential ship and, in many instances, in a very real sense, save their lives.<\/p>\n Sadly, Klein went through the mill herself, several times, and is all too keenly aware of the emotional mountains her charges have to climb if they are to stand any chance of somehow getting back on track and not slipping back into a vicious circle of violence, sexual promiscuity and abuse, and addiction.<\/p>\n Sitting with the irrepressible 61-year-old Shanti House founder and CEO, it is hard to believe she was once out on the street herself, a refugee from her own dysfunctional family and prey to all kinds of nefarious characters and social outcasts.<\/p>\n Klein harnesses that checkered backdrop not only as a source of strength and motivation for herself; she also shares it with at-risk youngsters in the hope that her own fight for survival and success against all the odds will inspire others to follow suit.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, I tell them about myself and what I went through,\u201d she states. \u201cI tell them everything. I tell them how my father abandoned me, about the extreme violence I was subjected to from my mother, as an only daughter \u2013 by the way, I am full of compassion for them now,\u201d she slips in without missing a beat. \u201cYou learn the way to get to that.\u201d<\/p>\n There is, sadly, more to Klein\u2019s story: \u201cI was sexually abused when I was five and raped at the age of 17,\u201d she adds, almost matter-of-factly. \u201cI lived on the streets of Boston and ate food from dumpsters,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Klein was born in New York, made aliyah with her parents when she was two years old, and spent part of her teenage years back in the States with her mother. That didn\u2019t go well, and she relocated back to Israel to a boarding school.<\/p>\n At the age of 20, she found herself pregnant \u2013 she discovered her condition too late to even consider having an abortion \u2013 with her now 40-year-old daughter, who, surprise, surprise, goes by the name of Shanti. Klein is now a proud mother of two and a besotted grandmother to Shanti\u2019s kindergarten-aged daughter.<\/p>\n That, no doubt, helps her to keep her feet on the ground and her heart in the right place as she continues to pound her invaluable beat and put in a shift or two to proffer a lifeline to youth who have been dealt a bad hand by the very people who should be providing them with a safe harbor, love, and a solid grounding before they step out from their domestic confines to, hopefully, forge their own course through the big outside world.<\/p>\n Klein says she knows \u2013 from rich personal and professional experience \u2013 there\u2019s no quick fix. \u201cI call it the cholent treatment,\u201d she chuckles. \u201cYou have to take it slowly, keep it on a low flame. It takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n She came across that precious realization quite some time ago. \u201cI have known this since the 1980s. Any person who has experienced trauma<\/a>, you have to create a safe place for them. You have to allow them time to develop trust, and to see there are others like them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThese [Shanti House] places help with post-trauma because there are other children like you. You are not alone. You are part of a group where you feel you are among equals, also with regard to the tough things you have been through. And the others are surviving and continuing on with their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Trust is the operative word here.<\/p>\n \u201cThe kids need to discover faith in someone, in someone professional who can help them. We have psychologists here and practitioners who can help with addictions. We have lots of different kinds of treatment here. One of the most important things for battle fatigue or post-trauma for children is that they have a safe environment. If you have that, you can start to trust someone,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The facility gives kids something to get excited about<\/p>\n The road to recovery also requires having something to look forward to. Sounds like something straight out of a Viktor Frankl<\/a> book, a feted Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and, more pertinently, Holocaust survivor.\u00a0<\/p>\n The best-known of Frankl\u2019s 39-strong bibliography is Man\u2019s Search for Meaning, which chronicles his experiences in Dachau and Auschwitz and how having some goal, some purpose, in life can help keep one on an even emotional keel, and literally keep them alive in the most trying of situations.<\/p>\n It is a school of thought to which Klein wholeheartedly subscribes. \u201cI know Frankl and his work,\u201d she says. \u201cHe is one of my sources of inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n This thought features prominently in the Shanti House remedial equation. \u201cThere is someone here whose dream is to do anything connected to the sea,\u201d Klein enlightens me. \u201cHe is interested in marine geology, anything marine. And he is gradually moving in that direction. He has started to build his process [of recovery].\u201d<\/p>\n Shanti House, she says, devotes substantial resources to helping the youngsters achieve their ambitions, thereby boosting their sense of self-worth and enabling them to channel their energy and talents toward tangible outcomes.<\/p>\n \u201cIf, for example, we have a young girl who wants to study psychology,\u201d she says, \u201cor something to do with emotional therapy, we will get a grant for her, so she can continue on to higher education after she finishes her military service.\u201d<\/p>\n Naturally, in order to get to university or college, one first has to graduate from high school. There are some for whom that is a steeper hill to climb.<\/p>\n There are two kids here who are about to join the army. One was abandoned by his mother when he was five years old, and his father joined some kind of cult group in Tiberias. His childhood was very difficult \u2013 there was lots of abuse. He came to us around 18 months ago, when he was around 16 or 17.<\/p>\n Amram completed his high school studies, and he is going to join the army and attend Havat Hashomer [IDF basic training camp in the Lower Galilee] to become a combat soldier. He couldn\u2019t believe it. He never thought he\u2019d achieve that, Klein shares.<\/p>\n Levi Amram is a gleaming beacon of hope for anyone down on their luck and short on optimism. I sat down with the 18-year-old at Shanti House in Tel Aviv for a chat about his dark past and his far brighter present and future.<\/p>\n It was hard to equate the confident young man, with his open face and inviting smile, with the tale of woe he recounted. Klein says she looks on in awe, pride, and joy at Amram and his ilk.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you see a child who had no dreams, who felt abandoned and transparent, who had no idea what they were going to do with their life, and then you see the light that comes out of them, and the hope, it is simply amazing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n![\"ISRAEL](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/726217.jpeg\"\/)
ISRAEL PRIZE RECIPIENT Klein uses her own tough start to life to help others. (credit: Leon Yakobov)<\/p>\n