The mission of Yad LaKashish is to give Jerusalem’s needy elderly a sense of purpose, self-worth and connection to mainstream society through creative work opportunities, essential support services and a warm community environment.
Yad LaKashish was founded in 1962 to serve the needy elderly of Jerusalem. Our philosophy is that truly supporting those in need involves helping them become creative, productive members of society. This is true of the elderly as well. Our aim is to help the elderly live with dignity and self respect while also helping them improve their financial situation, which is often dire.
To that aim, Yad LaKashish runs a complex of artistic workshops where the elderly are trained to make beautiful Judaica and gifts which we sell in our gift shop. Partly from sales in our gift shop and mostly through donations and grants from around the world, we offer the elderly artisans a monthly stipend, dental subsidies, bus passes, extra money around the holidays, a morning snack, hot lunch, and a day trip once a year. This support helps to lift around 270 people out of extreme poverty, mostly immigrants who worked as doctors, engineers, teachers, and more in various countries around the world, but who after moving to Israel at an advanced age, find themselves without means in their retirement years.
When Yad LaKashish was started 52 years ago, it served a handful of elderly men who were living on the streets by teaching them to rebind books. Over the years both the workshops and the financial aid have grown and expanded, and today 270 people come in every morning to work in one of our workshops including rehabilitation, metal, silk, ceramics, textiles, paper mache and the bookbindery, which is still active today.
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