About Us
Migdal Ohr International
Migdal Ohr (Hebrew for “Tower of Light”) was established to provide education and social guidance to children from underprivileged homes in Israel.
They come from overcrowded apartments, one-parent families, orphans, homes with drug abuse, impoverished and crime-ridden families. Drawing over 12,000 children at all levels of the educational spectrum. Migdal Ohr is raising a generation of dignified, capable adults who are moving society forward, defying the odds, and exceeding even their own expectations.
Missions Statement
Migdal Ohr’s motto is that with care, love and an equal opportunity for all, the children and youth can realize their full potential and soar to previously unthought-of heights.
Early Years
In 1968 Rabbi Yitzchak David Grossman moved to Migdal Ha’emek, a place with a shortage of jobs and dearth of schools, the town was plagued by widespread crime, alcohol and drug abuse. Rabbi Grossman, fully dressed in his Hasidic garb with beard and sidelocks, embarked on a one-man campaign to rehabilitate the youth immersed in crime and drug use. He went straight to the pubs and discos where idle youth from distressed homes were hanging out and gained their trust with love and caring.
In 1970 Israeli television dubbed him the “Disco Rabbi”. In 1969, one year after his arrival, the town unanimously elected him Chief Rabbi of Migdal HaEmek, giving him lifetime tenure. At age 23, he was the youngest municipal Chief Rabbi in Israel.In 1972 Rabbi Grossman founded the Migdal Ohr educational network to give children a loving and caring environment at the age of 6 or 7 so that they could circumvent the cycle of crime and drug abuse that plagued the town’s teens and adults. The year of its founding Migdal Ohr enrolled 18 students. By its second year it had doubled in size. Migdal Ohr now enrolls over 12,000 boys and girls all over Israel. As of 2022, it has over 25,000 alumni, that are now Parents, Teachers, Rabbis, Doctors, Commanders in the army and Lawyers etc. Migdal Ohr’s dedicated staff is comprised of 80 percent of alumni, who are now hard at work to educate the next generation.
Through his discussions with youth, Rabbi Grossman found out that many children had a father or brother in prison. In 1974 he initiated Shaked – Rehabilitation Through Religion, now operating in all Israeli prisons, which has reduced the recidivism rate of its participants to 20 percent. This program gives over 900 inmates, mostly jailed for drug-dealing and armed robbery, the choice to study Torah in the Prison School on a voluntary basis for three to four hours a day, while at the same time mentoring the prisoners’ families to prepare a new support system after release. Participants have one-third of their sentence reduced for good behavior.
A Dream...
...A Reality
