The German-born ladies who started a soup kitchen for destitute European refugees on the Tel Aviv beach back in the 1930s were Israeli innovators in their time. They went on to establish subsidized housing and a nursing home to tend their indigent elderly clientele.
Seventy-five years later, Reuth — the successor to the original organization, called Women’s Social Service — is still innovating.
Reuth (Hebrew for “friendship”) has become Israel’s leading elder care, rehabilitation and social-welfare nonprofit with a $53.5 million annual operating budget covered by donations and fees for services.
“We are constantly evaluating the immediate needs in Israeli society in social welfare and health care,” says deputy executive director Miriam Frankel. “With all the knowledge and experience we have amassed, we must continue to help others.”
Two hundred units of subsidized housing still shelter needy seniors, almost half of them Holocaust survivors. Reuth also manages three senior community centers in Tel Aviv, two senior residences in Tel Aviv and another in Jerusalem.
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