Who are Israel’s youth-at-risk?
Of the 2.3 million children and youth growing up in Israel, an estimated 350,000 are considered to be “at risk,” with most coming from poor, immigrant families. • About 10,000 Israeli youths have been removed from their homes. • A report by Elem, a group that helps youth in distress, found that nearly half of youth who loiter late at night were new immigrants teens, almost a quarter of them Ethiopian. • According to the Israel Anti-Drug Authority, the typical drug-using Israeli teenager is male, a new immigrant, lives in a big city, drinks alcoholic beverages and suffers from anxiety and depression. In addition, his parents likely do not live together and the parent he lives with is likely to be unemployed. Emotional and Physical Abuse In Israel’s at-risk community, as in vulnerable populations all over the world, one risk factor often leads to another – for example, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse can lead to lifelong battles with self-esteem, which make it more difficult to thr
