Lasova Association
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Lasova Association is one of the largest and oldest associations, working for 40 years to improve the lives of many thousands in Israeli society in all its aspects, by providing education, food, and shelter.
The association has established and operates:
15 shelters for the homeless, which provide warm beds for approximately 200 people each night.
Three restaurants for satiety in Tel Aviv, Acre, and Karmiel, feeding approximately 2000 people every day.
Every person receives a hot, nutritious, and kosher lunch, without any restriction on the amount of food, without question, and without profit.
21 youth homes under the "Kadima" youth home network, which aim to reduce the gaps in Israeli society by providing supplementary education and personal attention to each student, designed to enhance the different potential inherent in each one.
Reach out to those in need through donations, volunteering, or a year of service.
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Hot Meals Each Day
Served in one of our soup kitchens
for anyone who can't afford it
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Homeless Every Night
We provide shelter, meals, a clean bed, and a hot shower to anyone who asks, no questions asked.
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Children & teenagers
From the socio-geographic periphery
who come to us every day
Members of the Association
Our Team
Our Story
Assistance to those in need
קבלת אזרחים של כבוד עבור הפעילות של עמותת לשובע
בטקס קבלת אזרחות של כבוד עבור תרומתם לחברה הישראלית
קבלת אזרחות של כבוד במעמד הנשיא וראש עיריית תל אביב
קבלת אזרחים של כבוד עבור הפעילות של עמותת לשובע
In 1985, we established the "Temporary Shelter for All Those in Need" association, which was later merged into the "Lsova" association, which we established in 1990. The Lasova association's activities currently include 40 institutions and projects throughout the country, providing basic and essential services to those in the bottom one percent or one thousandth of society, all in the spirit and inspiration of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
"Should you not give your bread to the hungry and bring the poor and needy to your house? For you will see the naked and cover him, and you.
will not hide your face from him." (Neh. 7)
Many ask why and how our volunteering in the field of welfare began, and certainly expect an answer that will include one of these: personal background, an exciting event, or a solidified worldview. We also asked ourselves, and the only answer we found was good fortune, within the framework of which, as lawyers, and like many of our friends, we approached the Welfare Department of the Tel Aviv Municipality and offered to handle several claims and legal matters of those in need without compensation.
At first, we brought a computer, which was then relatively rare, and a guide to assist the children and youths who dined with us with their homework.
In 1998, we established the first youth center in the Kadima network, which now comprises 22 youth centers throughout the country.
Here, then, is the good fortune that in 1985 exposed us to the bad fortune of the homeless in Tel Aviv, and brought us to the establishment of over 40 welfare and educational institutions, as detailed above.
Since 1985, we have been privileged to exercise the right to serve as agents of thousands of generous donors and to work with and through thousands of volunteers to help ensure the most basic needs of the bottom 1% of society.
The Lasova Association is like a many-voiced orchestra, with many musicians and instruments, and we are proud of the privilege of founding it and conducting it. We are grateful for the unfailing trust of thousands of donors, who come to us by word of mouth and whose contributions, some 17 million NIS in 2020, are received without any publicity, fundraising events, solicitors, or commissions.
Since 1986 enabled the uninterrupted operation of all the organization's institutions. It should be noted that this was also the case during the Corona days, when the flow of donations increased, and we were able to increase the scope of our activities accordingly.
We are proud of our 80 Shinshinim and 45 Bnot Sherut who serve each year as counselors in our Kadima youth centers, of our hundreds of regular and dedicated volunteers, and thousands of other volunteers who have chosen Lasova as the framework for their social mission.
We are proud of the over 100 employees in the organization, many of them part-time, who form the solid foundation of all our institutions, especially we are proud of the 12 permanent employees who were formerly homeless and rehabilitated in our institutions.
In 1985, we entered the field of welfare from the world of law, and the world of welfare took us out of the world of law.
In late 2013, we closed our law office and decided to devote ourselves exclusively to the field of welfare. Since then, we have devoted our full time and energy, of course on a strictly voluntary basis, to the management of the Lasova Association.
Concurrent with the closing of our law office, we purchased a home in Hatzor HaGelilit and divide our days between Ramat Hasharon and Hatzor HaGelilit. Of course, it is impossible to conclude our life story without mentioning our 3 children and 8 grandchildren.
The desire to provide our children and youth with a meal more appropriate to their tastes and age, justified serving their meal in a separate wing, and subsequently evolved and crystallized the winning formula – to integrate their being with us in the Lasova Restaurant after school hours, with supplementary education to reduce gaps, prevent their dropping out of school and promote them, all to ensure their integration in adulthood. In the center of society and not on its dangerous fringes.
We saw the plight of the homeless, and we decided to establish a shelter for them.
In 1985, we established the Gagon Association, a temporary shelter for anyone in need, and with a very modest amount that we raised from friends, clients, and ourselves, we established the "Gagon" shelter in Kerem HaTyamanim near the Carmel Market in early 1986, which was the first shelter for street dwellers in Israel. Later, we established 14 shelters and Gagon shelters for street dwellers, where about 130 homeless people sleep every night, providing accommodation that constitutes the first and decisive step in the rehabilitation process.
In the fall of 2021, the new roof will be inaugurated, a spacious and respectful standard shelter for 75 street addicts, built by the municipality and operated by the LaShoba Association.
That's how it started, and the continuation is quick and obvious. The residents of the home also need food, and in 1990, we established the LaShoba restaurant in Tel Aviv, which was the first specialty restaurant in the secular sector. The public gave its trust, and the flow of donations made it possible to establish and operate restaurants in Acre and Karmiel as well.
The needy crowd that dines at restaurants is diverse – the elderly and young, the unemployed and disabled, street dwellers and single mothers, all of whom have a common denominator – abject and humiliating poverty, and of course, food insecurity. In this context, we note that, to our knowledge, there is no hunger phenomenon in Israel. Still, there is, on a large scale, a serious and worsening phenomenon of food insecurity and malnutrition, which is particularly hard on children and teenagers who are at risk and in distress
The statement of the association:
We are proud to share that in March 2023, the title of Honorary Citizens of the City of Tel Aviv-Yafo was awarded to Gil-Ad and Sharona Harish, founders and chairmen of the Lasova Association, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the fields of volunteerism, education, and welfare in the city.
Gil-Ad and Sharona: "We have earned this great honor thanks to the dedicated work and sense of mission of all the association's employees and volunteers, since its establishment until today, and you, all, share this honor with us."
This is an exciting achievement for all of us.