Meet the Christians bringing hope to Tel Aviv’s rough sleepers
Serving soup outside Aviv Ministry’s centre.
Embrace’s partner, Aviv Ministry, is located in Israel’s capital city. It strives to bring comfort and hope to people living on the streets of Tel Aviv.
For many, the Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv conjures up images of long, sandy beaches, glittering nightlife and quaint cobbled streets juxtaposed with modern skyscrapers. But a closer look reveals a different story; behind the shiny veneer of this city lies a tangled web of social problems and poverty.
When Igor emigrated to Israel from Ukraine as a young adult, he was hopeful that his new life would be different to the one he was leaving behind. But it wasn’t long before he found himself trapped in a repetitive cycle of drug addiction, and he ended up living on the streets.
The streets of south Tel Aviv are notorious. In contrast to the wide, palm tree-flanked boulevards of the north, or the picturesque lanes and courtyards of Jaffa, the neighbourhoods of Shapira and Neve Sha’anan are littered with loose electric cables, dead rats and piles of rubbish.
The number of rough sleepers has grown steadily in recent years. Many struggle with mental illness, drug addiction and chronic disease. Feelings of shame, abandonment and separation from society prevent many from seeking help.
For two and a half years that was Igor’s reality. And if it wasn’t for the work of the Aviv Centre his story could have been very different: “One day I heard about Christians who feed drug addicts at Aviv Centre with hot soup,” Igor says. “I had not eaten hot soup for a very long time, so I decided to visit the centre. I came on a Friday, and what made a real impression on me was the brotherly love between the volunteers there. It truly touched my heart.”
As well as providing hot meals, medical aid and clothing for people with substance-use disorders, the Aviv Centre volunteers are committed to building deeper relationships with the people who come through its doors. Many formerly lived on the streets themselves and they are passionate about befriending these people and, for those who want to, supporting them to leave the streets and start rehabilitation.
Dedicated to living out their faith – to ‘act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with [their] God’ (Micah 6:8) – the volunteers at Aviv don’t just wait for people to come to them; they go out into the streets to make initial contact with people, including visits to nearby brothels.
“Our faith brought us to Tel Aviv’s streets,” says Dov Bikas, the founder and director of Aviv Ministry. “When we saw these sick and dying young men and women on Tel Aviv streets, we felt compassion for them. We also saw that they were the most rejected, unwanted and defenceless group in Israeli society, living in awful poverty. Women are especially traumatised by this life, as their addiction forces them to sell themselves.”
Dov, 63, has his own story to tell. He is the son of Holocaust survivors, and moved to Israel in 1971 at the age of 12. Back then, life was not easy for Dov and as a teenager he spiralled downwards into a cycle of drink, drugs and smoking. But life completely changed when, at the age of 25, Dov accepted Yeshua (Jesus) as his Saviour and found a new sense of meaning and purpose. He wanted to help other people living in difficult circumstances and devote his life to serving people on the margins of society.
Since the Aviv Centre first opened its doors in 2012 at least 25 people have successfully gone through rehabilitation, entered work and built healthy relationships and families. Some have become volunteers at the Aviv Centre.
Igor is now a volunteer. Inspired by that first visit to the centre, he decided to turn his life around and go to a Christian rehabilitation programme: “I finished the rehab programme and started coming to the Aviv Centre to serve as a volunteer. Now I am a full-time minister in our rehab centre in Jerusalem,” he says.
(This article was originally published in the Big Issue, December 2022)
