TFHT works to reduce the purchase of sexual services in Israel with the goal of ending sex trafficking and eliminating the danger of women falling into prostitution and exploitation. Currently, 14,000 people are prostituted in Israel. While they include men, women, transgender people, adults, and minors, 95% are women and girls. 204 have died, either by their own hands or at those of clients or pimps, and their average age of death is 40. The most common age of entering prostitution is 13-14, 8th or 9th graders. Most prostituted persons were sexually abused as children. These statistics clearly indicate most prostituted persons do not engage in sex work by choice, but rather out of desperation, finding themselves outside the frameworks of school and family. Read More...
Named for Chaya Lauer of Blessed Memory, wife of ATZUM Founder Rabbi Levi Lauer, this project was established to enable victims of trafficking and prostitution to exit the cycle of sexual violence by accessing higher education, as well as the social and emotional support they need to succeed. Participants in the program will thrive as self-sufficient women, redefining stereotypes. Until this project was founded in 2023, a crucial gap existed in services offered to survivors of prostitution—making higher education accessible. Only by offering many women in prostitution the opportunity to fulfill their highest ambitions, with the close mentorship of a woman who has done so herself, will they truly be able to exit the cycle of exploitation and gender-based violence and become self-sufficient members of society. Read More...
Since the horrific events of October 7, the war in Israel continues to be a life- and soul-threatening crisis. The war and its rocket and missile barrages still ravage. As the massacred will forever be mourned, the wounded and maimed have years of painful, uneven rehabilitation ahead, and the hostages’ suffering relentlessly intrudes. The impact of the ongoing war is compounded, as the growing number of young Israeli soldiers killed extends the personal suffering to even more families. ATZUM seeks to alleviate the suffering of families and individuals directly affected by the October 7 attack and its aftermath by providing financial assistance for housing, food, clothing, and counseling to families displaced by the war in Gaza and in the north. Read More...
