Our staff is comprised of:

• 1 director
• 5 social workers
• 1 volunteer coordinator
• 1 student of social work
• 10 teachers
• 5 group facilitators
• 7 trained volunteers

Director Caryn Green, M.S.W., grew up in Tyler, TX. She attended the University of Texas, from which she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history. She earned her master’s degree in social work from Yeshiva University and has lived in Israel since 1997. Previously, Green worked in the children’s ward of Eitanim, a Jerusalem psychiatric hospital. She has been treating English-speaking Israeli youth for over eight years, and founded the Crossroads Center in 2001.

Program coordinator and Caseworker Orli Baiba was born in Los Angeles to an Israeli father and an American mother. She spoke only English at home until age 14, when her family made Aliya. After graduating high school, completing national service, and studying in seminary, she attended a three-year program at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, emerging with a bachelor’s degree in social work. While in school, she volunteered at Or Shalom, which provides counseling for children living in foster homes. Baiba completed her fieldwork at a Beit Shemesh social services office providing medical assistance to families and children, and at Jerusalem’s Gan Harmony, an outreach program that prepares English-speaking children with learning disabilities for the mainstream Israeli school system. She joined Crossroads in November 2003.

Volunteer coordinator and Social worker Ahuva Wisebrod grew up in Canada. After graduating high school in 1998, she came to Israel to study, and then began earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology at York University in Toronto. Four years later she returned to Israel, first working at a seminary and then enrolling in the Block Program at Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work. In her first year in Wurzweiler, she interned at Beit Herzog, a home for mentally ill adults, where she provided one-on-one therapy and led group activities, and also helped mentally ill patients at Herzog Hospital. The following year, she led music classes and served as caseworker at a Jerusalem-based mental health clinic. After earning her master’s degree in social work, Wisebrod privately tutoring high school and university students in math, gave piano lessons, and volunteered at Crossroads as an English tutor. Since June 2006, she has been working at the Center part-time, coordinating nonclinical programs, acting as caseworker, and doing intakes for new clients.

Intake and Caseworker Adina Stern was born in New York City, but moved with her family to Efrat, Israel when she was in the sixth grade. After high school, she performed national service at a boarding school for at-risk children. Following national service and a year of religious study at Midreshet Lindenbaum, Stern earned a master’s degree in Bible studies and bachelor’s degree in comparative literature from Bar Ilan University, and a teaching degree from Michlelet Herzog. While at Bar Ilan, she counseled immigrants from western countries, and after teaching two semesters of high school English, she worked for a year with the mentally ill. In 2003, she began working toward a bachelor’s degree in social work at Hebrew University, performing her fieldwork as a therapist serving drug addicts and ex-convicts, and as a probation officer. Stern simultaneously volunteered for Elem, an organization serving at-risk teens on the street. Since earning her B.A. in 2006, she has been working at the Crossroads Center.

Caseworker Tsvi Rosby was born in Chicago and made aliyah in 1996. After completing his army service in a Hesder program combining military duty with religious study, he earned his bachelor’s degree in education from Moreshet Yaakov College in Rehovot in 2004 while continuing advanced torah studies. Throughout his torah and academic studies he has held teaching and mentoring positions with at-risk children and teens. Rosby earned his BA in social work at Bar Ilan University in 2004. As a student of social work he worked for one year in the mental health clinic of Beit Shemesh in the “Enosh” department with people suffering from mental illness. The following year Rosby worked in “Retorno” rehabilitation community as a therapist and group facilitator with people recovering from drug and other addictions. He joined Crossroads in October 2007.

Crossroads is professionally supervised by the division for the Advancement of Youth at the Jerusalem Municipality.