Kishorit is a model for building productive, meaningful lives for those living with physical, mental, emotional or learning challenges.

Kishorit began as the initiative of Israeli families who sought a more fulfilling alternative for their disabled loved ones – something better than lifelong dependence on an institution or perpetual childhood at home.

Kishorit provides a model of empowerment and a model for positive potential, recognizing the choices each member makes in determining who he is and the potential each has to draw on his own individual strengths.

Kishorit started in 1997 with four members and today has 153 members together with staff and volunteers in the quiet countryside of the Galilee region of Israel.

Kishorit is a thriving, supportive community, a home-for-life for its members, where educational, cultural and recreational activities abound and gainful employment is recognized as a vital part of life.

Kishorit is home to a wooden toy factory, a horse stable for boarding services and therapeutic riding lessons, Israel’s largest producer of organic goat milk, a pedigree dog kennel for boarding and breeding prize-winning European champion schnauzers and dachshunds, free range hens, organic vegetable gardens and, most recently, an organic vineyard to which will be added a winery producing boutique wines.

Kishorit is home to the Ziv Getz Democratic School (est. 2003) for teens with serious mental limitations from the neighbouring region; the school welcomes Jews, Christian, Muslim and Druze students and provides an individualized therapeutic program to learn and develop vocational and life skills in an environment built around Kishorit’s core values of human dignity and potential. 

Kishorit is a growing, dynamic community with new, imaginative plans for its members and for others who can benefit from the Kishorit model.