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Rabbi Naftali Rosenfeld z"l
- Founder
Lost his first wife and four daughters in the Shoah. With his second wife, he opened their door in 1949. He led the home for thirty-five years.
The FounderRabbi Naftali Rosenfeld z"l, founder of the home. He led it from 1949 until his passing.- The Story of a Door That Has Never ClosedOne home. Hundreds of girls.
One home. Hundreds of girls.
Held, every day, by thousands of partners.
Bayit Lepleitot began in 1949, when Rabbi Naftali Rosenfeld z"l - a Holocaust survivor who had lost his wife and four daughters - opened his Jerusalem home to twenty-four orphaned girls. Today, hundreds of girls grow up within its walls - and the home stands for one reason only: thousands of partners, from the philanthropist who carries a whole wing to the family that sets aside a few dollars a month, have never let go of its door. This is the story of the home - and of everyone who holds it.
“Every girl who arrives at Bayit Lepleitot will know that, here, she has found a home.- Rabbi Naftali Rosenfeld · The founding promise · 1949
- The full arc
Seventy-five years, in sixteen moments.
The story of Bayit Lepleitot has never been a straight line. It has been a door that opened in 1949 and never closed - even as the work kept growing in shape, in scope, and in the number of girls who needed it.
- 1949The Door Opens
Rabbi Rosenfeld takes in 24 girls, in rented flats.
In small, bare rented flats in Mea Shearim, Rabbi Naftali Rosenfeld z"l and his second wife take in twenty-four young Holocaust survivors - girls who had survived the camps and the marches and had no family to return to.
24 girls - 1955A roof of its own
The Chayei Adam 32 building is dedicated.
After years of rented flats, the home gets a roof of its own - the building on Chayei Adam Street 32, the address a generation of graduates still remembers.
- 1962Baharan 1
The large building on Baharan Street 1 goes up.
The large building on Shlomo Zalman Baharan Street 1 is built and opened. It has been the beating heart of the home ever since - and is still its address today.
- 1966Waves of aliyah
More rented flats across Jerusalem.
Flats are rented across Jerusalem to take in the daughters of the Georgian, Bukharan and Russian aliyah.
- 1972Beit Hachlama
A convalescent home opens for the home's girls.
Beit Hachlama opens for the girls of Bayit Lepleitot, and later widens its doors to the general public.
- 1973Girls Town
The Girls Town boarding school is dedicated.
The vision shifts from emergency shelter to lifelong home - including school, vocational training, and help building a household of one's own.
~100 girls - 1980The school
The Girls Town school building is dedicated.
The school of Girls Town is dedicated, and lessons move inside the home's own walls.
- 1985Second generation
Rabbi Moshe Yona Rosenfeld takes the reins.
Rabbi Naftali's son continues the work. The first cohort of girls from the 1949 home are now mothers themselves; many send their daughters back to volunteer.
- 1987Kiryat Ye'arim
A second Beit Hachlama, in Kiryat Ye'arim.
Beit Hachlama in Kiryat Ye'arim opens for the girls of the home, and has kept growing ever since.
- 1997Enrichment and trade
Land is bought for the enrichment and vocational wing.
Bayit Lepleitot buys a dedicated site in Jerusalem, to house the enrichment classes and the vocational training of the home's girls.
- 2005Third generation
Rabbi Chaim Elazar Rosenfeld is appointed director.
The grandson takes up the post of director of the home, carrying on the path his grandfather set and his father continued.
- 2016Room to grow
A wing and another floor, for the growing numbers.
The number of girls keeps rising, and an expanded wing and an additional floor are built to hold them all.
- 2020Nivcheret
Nivcheret opens, for the very youngest orphans.
Nivcheret launches: residential care for orphaned girls age 5+. Originally for 40 girls - now 200.
200 girls today - 2022Bishvilech
Bishvilech - a day program for girls.
Bishvilech is founded, a day program for girls from homes that have been through divorce. The home recognizes that poverty and distress do not spare those who were never orphaned.
- 2023Beyachad
Beyachad for boys, and a building of its own.
Beyachad is founded as the parallel program for boys, and the Beyachad building goes up in Jerusalem alongside it.
600 children combined - 2026Today
800+ children across four programs.
The home has graduated more than 4,200 girls since 1949. Twenty-three of them are now licensed social workers. One in four marries a husband she met through the home's Shidduchim system. The door is still open.
4,200+ graduates · 800+ today · 3 generations
- Three generations of one family
The same name on the door.
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Rabbi Moshe Yona Rosenfeld
- Son · Successor · Director Emeritus
Grew the home from one campus to four. Established Girls Town Jerusalem as the flagship. Launched Nivcheret. Still consults daily.
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Rabbi Chaim Elazar Rosenfeld
- Grandson · Current Director
The third generation to keep the door open. Walking the path of his grandfather and his father, he watches over hundreds of girls today - so that each one grows up in a real home, held by a family that will never let go of her hand.
- The ones who hold the door
Hundreds of girls grow up here - and without our partners, we could not help a single one of them.
Everything this home gives - the bed, the warm meal, the school, the chuppah - exists because thousands of good people choose, year after year, to carry it. From the philanthropist who builds a wing to the child who sets aside a single dollar: in this house no gift is small, and every giver is family.
To be part of Bayit Lepleitot is a zechus - a privilege, and a responsibility. Hundreds of girls are growing up safe today because people like you decided they should. Their gratitude, and ours, belongs to you.
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