By Jeremy Wimpfheimer

David (name changed to protect identity) distinctly recalls the moment he took his last hit of cocaine. Deep inside the stuffy confines of an Israeli prison in the unrelenting heat of the Negev, a fellow inmate and hard-core user gestured to him to take a hit of the pipe he was smoking. Revolted by the user’s incessant cough and the blood streaming from his nose, David says, “Something just snapped inside of me and from that very moment, I promised myself I would never again use hard drugs.”

Even while the American yeshiva student had a long road of recovery ahead of him, that day in prison marked an important turnaround for the then 19-year old whose life had led him down a remarkably strange and often dangerous path. While the details that brought him into the hands of Israel’s correctional system were far from the ordinary, his saga serves as a shocking reminder of a growing phenomenon wherein American yeshiva students and children of American immigrants to Israel, including many from the Long Island area, are increasingly getting caught up in the violent world of delinquency, drugs and crime on Israel’s streets.

While drug abuse and delinquency are epidemics that can be seen all over Israel, for the Anglo community, the problem finds most of its activity in the nation’s capital and its suburbs. In the heart of downtown Jerusalem, just at the bottom of the Ben-Yehuda thoroughfare is Zion Square, but to local Anglo youth it is more commonly known as Crack Square. It is this meeting point that for years had been the hangout where English speakers would gather at all hours of the night, often with the goal of getting drunk or high.

One of the foremost players involved with the effort to confront the scourge of Anglo delinquency is a local Jerusalem non-profit called Crossroads. In 2001, the organization opened the doors of the Crossroads Center located adjacent to the Square with the specific purpose of offering youth a safe, nurturing- and where relevant- therapeutic environment to address their problems.

Founded by Caryn Green, who made aliya from Tyler, Texas ten years ago, Crossroads currently serves as the only Israeli organization dedicated exclusively to English-speaking youth and sees over 700 young men and women through its doors each year. Green, who studied social work in New York, says defining what is an “at-risk” child requires looking at a combination of factors.

“We have children who come in here and say that they were beaten by their parents and want to be sure they don’t do similar things to their children, and young men who were smoking crack and living on the streets,” she says. “A common story we regularly hear is of both boys and girls who were sexually abused back in the U.S.”

In an effort to put those horrific experiences behind them, parents often send their children to Israel with the belief that a change in environment will lead to a change in situation - but once in Israel, they often turn to drugs and other self-destructive behavior as a means to cope with their personal crises. While children of immigrants to Israel find themselves in new surroundings for wholly different reasons, similar occurrences of “at-risk” behavior are also being increasingly found amongst that sector of the population.

According to Chaim Waxman, professor emeritus of sociology at Rutgers University and a senior fellow at the Jerusalem People Policy Planning Institute, while there is no specific evidence that shows Anglo youth are more “troubled” than their Israeli counterparts, shifts such as moving to Israel can have a drastic effect on a child’s behavior. “Immigration is a classic example of upheaval,” says Waxman who has extensively studied and written about the subject of American aliya. “And with that upheaval comes a certain degree of delinquency.”

This “at-risk” behavior is often exhibited by children of immigrants, years, even decades, after the original move, suggesting that the sense of upheaval is something which can never be completely erased. One father who asked to remain anonymous and had moved from California 15 years ago, said that while he wouldn’t say anything bad about Israel, “the school systems don’t always address each individual’s potential and is unable to respond to specific challenges and issues one might be facing.” Only after his daughter’s behavior became dangerous to the extent that she was recommended to the care of Crossroads was she able to get her life back on track. Today, his daughter is performing National Service and is on good terms with her family leading her father to say with regret, “it’s a huge shame that it requires kids to get involved in a whole bunch of trouble in order for them to get this kind of treatment.”

A mother, who similarly requested anonymity, had moved from Florida over 25 years ago and admitted that raising children in Israel presented certain challenges that required parents to look for help outside of the traditional family framework. Regarding her son who was helped by Crossroads and is now living and working in Baltimore, she said that the Center allows for treatment, “that takes the emotional involvement of parents out of the picture. Their professionalism allows them to help no matter what.”

As for David, his path down the slippery slope that eventually led him into an Israeli prison began when his drug use was transformed from a vice to a profession as he began to sell drugs - a pastime that he quickly recognized had become extremely profitable.

Green, who first met David on one her many forays onto the streets of Jerusalem to discover Anglo teens in need, says the American teen “always was carrying large wads of cash.” Recognizing that the real profits came from importing drugs from Europe, David along with several “mules” began to make regular trips to Amsterdam until in his words, “I got too greedy.” His operation had caught the eye of Israeli law enforcement and upon one re-entry to Israel, one of his mules was caught with a suitcase full of drugs. David was sentenced to fifteen months in prison- a sentence which was later reduced to ten for good behavior. Green, who regularly made the trip to the facility just outside of Beersheba, recalls one day early in his term when she confronted David saying “Who are you? He looked up at me and said I don’t know. We started from there and never looked back.”

On the day of his release, David went to the Western Wall to pray as a free man for the first time in months. There, by chance, he met a girl he had known from the U.S. and who would later become his wife. While required by the Israeli police to leave the country, he was well on the road to recovery and he now says he has succeeded in leaving this dark chapter firmly behind him.

Today, living back in New York as a father of two and with a solid job, he sees the work of Green and Crossroads as the catalyst that brought about the change in his life. Green recalls how at her protégé’s wedding she was approached by his parents and treated almost as royalty. “While I didn’t deserve such honor, I’m deeply proud of what role we could play in his life,” she says with a smile. Yet, as she prepares to head back out to the dark Jerusalem streets, she cautions that much work remains to be done, saying, “While David is one of our true success stories, we know that there are many others just like him, simply waiting in the wings to be discovered and helped.”

Jeremy Wimpfheimer is a freelance journalist living in Beit Shemesh, Israel.