Volunteer Award of Excellence for Ephraim Gartenhause

Ephraim Gartenhause will be the recipient of the coveted Volunteer Award of Excellence at the 2014 Aleh Foundation Awards Gala, to be held at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City on Wednesday, May 21, 2014, at 6:30 pm. He recently paid a visit to the Aleh Foundation. Mr. Gartenhause founded and created the volunteer project in Aleh’s first major Center (which served 14 children), located at 53 Kehilat Yakov in Bnei Brak, Israel. He found out about the Aleh facility when he was doing his military duties as supervisor of the Nafat Shomer Military Base, adjacent to the Center. Being that they did not have space for chairs to meet with parents and friends in the evenings, Mr. Gartenhause let them hold those meetings at the military base. Bar Ilan University, located next to Aleh and Nafat Shomer, also had a dormitory, as well as a conference room, that Mr. Gartenhause secured for Aleh meetings when the military base was not available.

During his involvement with Aleh, he helped bathe the children whose parents needed help with such tasks and those that didn’t have the appropriate facilities at home. He ultimately recruited other volunteers and taught them ways to connect with the special children who were unable to communicate. In the course of his 28 year mission, as Aleh grew to larger facilities, he developed a roster of volunteers who he coordinated on a weekly basis—at all hours—day and night.

Mr. Gartenhause shared a few of his poignant sentiments. “One young couple from Haifa, who were married for five years and were unable to have children, decided to become volunteers in their quest for merits, and a need to be fulfilled. They volunteered on a regular basis and became attached to some of the most vulnerable children. Precisely 10 months after they began volunteering, they were blessed with a healthy baby.”

A different young man who was the caretaker for his grandfather for 10 years felt a void after his passing. When he told Mr. Gartenhause, he immediately recruited him to do service at Aleh and the young man became so attached to some of the children, that he even brought them home for weekends and holidays, and attracted countless others to volunteer.

“The trick of a successful volunteer is to connect and to build a loving trusting relationship,” said Mr. Gartenhause.

In addition to his volunteer work at Aleh, Mr. Gartenhause volunteered for Ezer Mizion, overseeing transporting patients to hospitals and providing lifesaving equipment to many severely ill patients. He was also a successful and beloved teacher at the Bobov School in Bnei Brak. He received many accolades and honors from several municipalities in Israel, as well as from the Israeli Parliament.

He is very proud of the work he has done and even more so that his son, Ben-Zion, took over his duties when he decided three years ago to move to the United States.

Rabbi Braun suggested that he inaugurate a similar volunteer program in the US, once an Aleh Center opens here. He responded that he would be delighted! Rabbi Shlomo Braun is the Founder and Director of the Aleh Foundation, located at 5317 13th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11219.

It is due to the energetic and successful fund raising efforts of the Aleh Foundation in the USA, during the past 30 years, that Aleh in Israel was able to become Israel’s foremost provider of care and treatment for severely disabled children. Aleh’s spacious dormitories, treatment centers, special education schools and occupational training schools house and treat more than 700 special children in four cities in Israel. Plans are underway to build their latest project, the Special Education School, which is presently in its final construction stage at Pardes Katz, a 10 minute-drive from Tel Aviv. It will have the capacity to service 200 children, with special education classes ranging from kindergarten through high school. Your support can help make a difference in expediting the completion of the project; allowing the children to enjoy special education classes.

Please join friends of Aleh Foundation in recognizing the heroic efforts of Mr. Gartenhause at the Awards Dinner. Call the headquarters at 800-317-ALEH to get involved or visit their website: alehfoundationusa.org.