Break-In at Girls Town!

While the girls were (thankfully) away on the last days of Pesach, a gang of burglars broke into the Girls Town dorm two nights in a row.

After cutting the alarm system, these professional burglars cleaned out the dorm rooms and stole many expensive and sentimental items belonging to the girls. They caused much damage on Thursday night and then came back on Friday night to finish off the job.

Our house mother and her family were the only ones in residence, and her teenage sons managed to scare away the burglars on the second night. But they still managed to steal more personal items and trash the office, even trying to get into the safe in Rabbi Stern’s office.

We are still reeling from the shock of this intrusion and it will definitely take time to deal with all the repercussions - the damage to the girls’ feelings and personal belongings, as well as the damage to the building, lots of very expensive equipment that was stolen and must be replaced and the cost of upgrading the security system. All this is going to cost us an enormous amount of money. However, we have tremendous gratitude to G-d that nobody was physically hurt.

Our first priority is of course the safety and wellbeing of the girls. We are focusing our efforts on ensuring that the girls are physically and emotionally secure. The feeling of vulnerability coupled with the fear will take time and professional intervention to overcome. Girls Town Jerusalem is supposed to be the safety zone for our girls, and we have been violated.

The police have told us that they expect this gang to return and attempt to get into the safe yet again. We are starting to collect funds to install new steel security doors, better door frames, new window bars, an electric fence and floodlights. We are also planning to introduce a state of the art surveillance system.

We would like to replace the items stolen from the girls, including jewelry, electronics, perfume and cameras. The girls’ rooms were trashed, so there is much repair work to be done to the furniture as well.

Any and all help is appreciated. Please let us know how you can contribute to bringing safety and security back to Girls Town.