May 19, 2005

Generous Endowment, in Time for Lag B’omer, Allows More Israeli Teens at Risk to Find Shelter at Expanding OU Israel Center in Jerusalem

Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center
22 Rechov Keren Hayesod, Jerusalem
02-566-7877

Thanks to a generous endowment given by the family of the OU’s Past President Harold Jacobs and his wife Pearl, the Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center (known as the OU Israel Center), will soon open a new and expanded facility for its critically needed, highly successful Zula program for Israeli teens-at-risk. (“Zula” is a Turkish word used as Israeli slang for a place to hang out with friends.)

Located in the center of downtown Jerusalem, only minutes from Kikar Tzion, where many of these troubled youth congregate, the new facility will be aptly named the Harold and Pearl Jacobs OU Zula Outreach Center.

The gift was announced by the Jacobs’ daughter, Mrs. Vivian Chill of New York, in time for Lag B’Omer, which falls this year on Friday, May 27, and is her father’s yahrtzeit. “I want to express my deepest gratitude to Vivian Chill and to the entire Jacobs Family for the generous endowment they have provided to the OU for Zula,” commented OU President Stephen J. Savitsky. “Harold Jacobs was one of the OU’s most distinguished leaders, and together with Pearl, set the standard for devotion to critical Jewish causes. His accomplishments were legendary; now, with this gift, the Jacobs name will be perpetually associated with one of the OU’s most extraordinary programs.”

A previous endowment fund had been established at the OU in memory of Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs, lifelong activists and advocates for Orthodox Jewry. That fund is currently being used to further the OU’s National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) educational programs for teen-agers and the OU’s Yachad programs for the developmentally disabled. In addition, the OU established the Pearl and Harold M. Jacobs Shabbat Learning Center, one of the largest resources for Shabbat-related Torah material on the Internet.

Joining the OU as a lay leader in the 1940s, Mr. Jacobs spent his early years in the organization raising the level of kosher standards and combating the gross violations of Torah law in funeral practices. In later years, Mr. Jacobs assumed the position of President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the OU, in which he served as a pivotal force in the historic struggle to free Soviet Jewry. During his presidency, Mr. Jacobs emphasized the growth and expansion of NCSY, the largest Jewish youth organization, and brought the OU into a new era of fiscal stability. Ultimately, his multi-faceted service to the OU extended for more than five decades.

It is most fitting that the current endowment will be used to further the essential work done at the Zula, which started as a grassroots group – led by a concerned community member, Harel Hetzroni – that had gathered more lost young souls than it could handle and sought larger quarters. A wise friend directed Hetzroni to the OU’s Israel Center. “We had just opened our new building and we adopted the project,” said Rabbi Dovid Cohen, Director General of the OU’s projects in Israel. “As it grew, we moved it to another location and then to another.”

Today, the Zula opens its doors to hundreds of participants every Motzei Shabbat from 11:00 to the wee hours of the morning. Each young person at risk joins the others on cushions that line the floor, playing drums and guitars or taking in the warm, tranquil atmosphere and words of encouragement. They hear about the Zula through the street work of Hetzroni, who, with the program’s madrichim, continues to scour the hangouts, schmoozing with the kids, reeling them in, and saving their lives. With the Harold and Pearl Jacobs Endowment, they will be able to save more.

“We are very excited by this development,” declared Yitzhak Fund, President of the Israel Center. “Up until now, we have only been able to offer the teenagers who come to the Zula a place to meet on Motzei Shabbat. Now we can provide that same warm and caring atmosphere throughout the week, enabling us to enrich and expand our crucial follow-up activities.”

Mrs. Chill expressed her family’s desire and commitment to supporting an important OU program. “In this respect, we were advised by our long and trusted friend, Dr. David Luchins, an OU Vice President, who visited the Zula program during the OU’s Convention in Israel last year,” said Mrs. Chill. “Members of our family in Israel made a point of seeing what went on there and were very impressed by the atmosphere, particularly the warmth and caring of the Zula staff. At this point in the annals of Israeli society, there doesn’t seem to be a more vital cause than saving the next generation and strengthening each young man and woman’s ties to Judaism and to Israel.”

According to Rabbi Cohen, the new Zula will be up and running by the summer; a dedication ceremony is planned. As Harel Hetzroni, the founder of the Zula, says, “With two or three times the resources, we could reach four or five times the number of youth, and do much more in-depth work with them. The street is crying out.”

Thanks to the Jacobs Family’s gift, a significant step has been taken in this direction.

For more information on Zula or to contact the Israel Center, call Menachem Persoff, Program Director of the Israel Center, at 02-566-7877, ext. 202 or email him at mpersoff@israelcenter.co.il.

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The Orthodox Union, now in its second century of service to the Jewish community of North America and beyond, is a world leader in community and synagogue services, adult education, youth work through NCSY, political action through the IPA, and advocacy for persons with disabilities through Yachad and Our Way. Its kosher supervision label, the , is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 275,000 products manufactured in 68 countries around the globe.

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