Evangelical Lutheran Boys Home, Beit Jala

Goals and objectives | History | Contact information

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The Boys Home Today

Set in the center of Beit Jala, a centuries-old West Bank city just west of Bethlehem, the Evangelical Lutheran Home for Boys enrolls today approximately 50 boys between the ages of 6 and 18 who have no family or difficult family situations. Christian and Muslim residents come from throughout the West Bank and Jerusalem to live and learn in the Home’s warm, family atmosphere. Prior to the first Intifada in 1987 and the subsequent closures imposed on Palestinian communities by the Israeli military, a number of boys from Gaza also lived at the Home.

Today the majority of residents are from the region of Beit Jala, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem, but some also come from the large West Bank cities of Nablus and Hebron.

Boys come to the Evangelical Lutheran Home facing a wide variety of difficulties. Many come from families in which parents are separated or divorced; others have no close family to care for them. Some come from families in which one or both parents struggle with drug or alcohol abuse, and many suffer from extreme poverty. Children from all backgrounds find a safe, open environment at the Home for Boys, as well as a community committed to helping them learn and grow.

In addition to receiving regular, nutritious meals and a place to sleep, all children attend local schools and receive help with their schoolwork from the Home’s staff of educators during the evenings.

The Evangelical Lutheran Home also offers residents a variety of extra-curricular activities. Athletic activities, arts, and music provide residents with constructive outlets for their energy and help them to explore and develop a wide range of personal skills. Although residents’ families are asked to pay a small portion of the actual cost for their child to live at the Home, few are able to pay even this small amount. The vast majority of the Evangelical Lutheran Home’s work is funded by outside donors, the ELCJHL, and the congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Beit Jala.

Goals and objectives

The main goal of the Evangelical Lutheran Home for Boys is to provide residents with a healthy home and to equip them for a bright and fruitful life. The ELHB works toward this goal by pursuing the following objectives:

• Raise children in an environment as close to a family-based home as possible
• Give children the opportunity to complete a high school education
• Instill in children the principles of integrity and good citizenship that will enable them to become responsible adults
• Provide extra-curricular activities for the children’s education, entertainment and holistic development
• Advise and guide children toward continuing their education in both vocational and academic fields
• Facilitate children’s contact with local families and provide children the opportunity to become integrated as valued members of the local community
• Educate children in principles of peace, reconciliation, and respect for others

History

Since its founding in 1841, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Beit Jala has cared for those in greatest need in the surrounding community with kindness, boldness, and love. In the early 1950s, the congregation of approximately 500 persons became aware of the large number of at-risk children in the area—children without parents, from broken families, or in extreme poverty—and began exploring the possibility of opening a home for boys on the church premises. Johannes Ludwig Schneller, a German missionary to Palestine, born in 1820 in Ertsingen, Germany, had founded a number of orphanages and homes for at-risk children in the late nineteenth century (beginning with the Syrian Orphanage). 

His example inspired the congregation to open the Evangelical Lutheran Home for Boys in 1956 in an unused older building on the church grounds. The Home immediately admitted sixty boys from Beit Jala and the surrounding communities with a small staff and the support of the congregation. Mr. Charlie Azar was the home’s first director.

Word of the high quality of care available at the Evangelical Lutheran Home for Boys spread quickly; soon at-risk boys from all over Palestine found their home there. In 1987, when a new building was constructed in place of the existing one, the home was able to serve its children in a more comfortable and spacious atmosphere. The home has continuously cared for 50 to 60 children since its opening in 1956.

This information was summarized from the book Memories and Historical Events by Bishop Daoud S. Haddad (p. 374).

Contact information

Rev. Jadallah Shihadeh, director
Evangelical Lutheran Boys Home
P.O.Box 24
Beit Jala, Palestine
Telephone: +972-2-274-2613
Fax: +972-2-277-7970
Email: