Ayelet Eizikovitz, an 11-year-old Bergenfield resident whose family belongs to Congregation Ohr HaTorah, will be going to Israel in a few months to celebrate her cousin Jared Moskowitz’s Bar Mitzvah. Since Ayelet will, God willing, be celebrating her own Bat Mitzvah in November, she wanted to do something while she is in Israel to mark the occasion.

Ayelet’s grandmother, Bonnie Eizikovitz, has been an active member of Emunah for years. She introduced Ayelet to Yehuda Kohn, director of Bet Elazraki, an Emunah children’s residential home located in Netanya, Israel. The home was founded in 1969 to help children in distress. Today they house over 200 children from infants to 18 years old.

Most of the children at Bet Elazraki have been subjected to domestic violence, drug abuse, alcoholism, severe poverty and/or neglect, and most of their parents were deemed incapable of raising them. The parents, in many cases, were raised in institutions such as this themselves, and so 90 percent of the children have found themselves trapped in this vicious cycle of distress.

All the children have endured painful, traumatic experiences in their lives, and their physical and emotional needs are attended to by the home’s dedicated professional staff on a 24-hour basis. Bet Elazraki does its best to also support the children’s needs for education and entertainment with as much tender loving care as any normal family, always striving to give the children hope of a brighter future.

Ayelet decided that she wanted to have a bake sale to raise money to donate to Bet Elazraki. With the help of friends and family, Ayelet was able to raise over $2,200. The money will be used for “extras” for the children in the home, like the purchase of special games, outdoor toys or cooking lessons for the older girls who aren’t fortunate enough to have a mother who can teach them how to cook.

To learn more or make a donation to Bet Elazraki, please visit http://www.elazraki.org.