Lisa M. Pollack
Executive Director | Advocate

Neve Hanna: Books. Bread. Brighter Futures.

Neve Hanna Children's Home, Israel. 
Photo: AFNH staff. March 2025.
Neve Hanna Children's Home, Israel.

Learning Today. Building Brighter Futures.
Two different classrooms. One shared purpose.

At Neve Hanna Children’s Home, education isn’t limited to the classroom.

Some of life’s most important lessons are learned by doing—discovering new abilities, developing practical skills, taking responsibility, and gaining the confidence that comes from realizing, “I can do this.”

Through educational and vocational programs, young people at Neve Hanna are given opportunities to explore their interests, discover their strengths, and develop skills that can help prepare them for greater independence and future careers.

Two programs demonstrate this in very different ways: the Library and Yeladudes Bakery School. One is filled with books. The other with bread.

One encourages young people to discover new worlds through reading and learning. The other invites them to roll up their sleeves and learn through the craft and business of baking.

Different classrooms. Different skills. One shared purpose: helping young people build brighter futures.

Learning Beyond the Bookshelves.

The Library. Photo: AFNH staff.

The Library at Neve Hanna is a place for reading, discovery, and learning—but for some teens, it is also a place to gain valuable hands-on experience.

Under the guidance of professional staff, teens learn through real-world library responsibilities, developing organizational and interpersonal skills while building confidence, responsibility, and independence.

In the process, they gain something that can’t always be taught from a textbook: the experience of putting their abilities to work. For some, that experience may even open the door to future opportunities in Library Science, education, or related careers.

In the Library, young people aren’t only discovering what’s inside books. They’re discovering what’s inside themselves.

Across the Neve Hanna campus, another kind of hands-on learning is taking place.

Learning Through the Craft of Baking.

The Yeladudes Bakery. Photo: NH Staff.

At Yeladudes Bakery School, young people roll up their sleeves and learn through the craft and business of baking. They work with ingredients, learn about nutrition and production, and discover the importance of precision, patience, and repetition.

But the lessons extend far beyond the bakery. Young people learn responsibility, gain experience in Business Management and the craft of baking, earn a salary, and experience the independence and pride that can come from putting their abilities to work.

For some, Yeladudes may also open the door to discovering an interest or ability that could one day become a career.

At Yeladudes, young people aren’t simply learning how to bake. They’re learning what they can accomplish with their own hands.

A library and a bakery may seem worlds apart. But at Neve Hanna, both offer young people opportunities to discover their abilities and begin imagining what they might one day accomplish.

Because sometimes, a brighter future begins with a simple discovery:

“I can do this.”

Neve Hanna Children’s Home works to meet the physical, emotional, educational, and developmental needs of each child through a wide range of individualized therapeutic programs, projects, and extracurricular activities.

The therapeutic programs are designed to strengthen each child’s self-worth while fostering creativity, joy, confidence, and a sense of play and possibility.

Let’s build something together. Please visit us at www.afnevehanna.org to learn more about our children, the programs and projects that we continue to establish, and get the current news on Neve Hanna. 

About the Author
Lisa Pollack serves as Executive Director of American Friends of Neve Hanna, the nonprofit organization supporting Neve Hanna Children's Home in Kiryat Gat, Israel, which provides a loving and nurturing home for children at risk. Actively involved in the Jewish community, Lisa is associated with Women's League for Conservative Judaism (WLCJ), its BQLI Region, FJMC International and its New York Metropolitan Region, the American Jewish Alliance, and the Masorti Movement. She is also a community advocate, Israel advocate, public speaker, photographer, and writer.
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