There’s a moment in every rehabilitation story that doesn’t make it into the inspirational quotes. It’s not the first day sober, or the first job interview, or even the first night of safe sleep. It’s the moment a person realizes the past hasn’t just hurt them, it’s still billing them.
For one woman, a survivor of the sex trade, that bill came in the form of 77 fines totaling about 100,000 shekels. Not a “mistake,” not a single misstep—an accumulated record of survival under conditions most of us are lucky never to face. A teenager subjected to severe sexual assault. A descent into prostitution, drug dependence, and life on the street. And then, against the odds, a decision to climb out.
She did what we demand people do when we speak about “responsibility.” She sought help. With the support of a mobile clinic operated through the Haifa Health Bureau, she got clean. She started looking for work. She began the slow, grinding work of rebuilding a life.
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Guy Akuka, nearly blind since birth, does not see the world like most people. With a visual range of only three meters, he has spent his life sharpening a different kind of vision: a profound sense of social justice. Today, as a senior attorney for the Jerusalem Institute of Justice (JIJ), Akuka has become a lifeline for IDF veterans, providing expert legal representation to those navigating the grueling bureaucracy of the Ministry of Defense.
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2024 was our busiest and most impactful year since our founding 20 years ago. With your help, in 2024, JIJ provided FREE legal aid to 2,733 survivors of terrorism, human trafficking, and discrimination, including: 32 wounded Israeli soldiers, 40 survivors of human trafficking, 17 survivors of the October 7th massacre, 68 families seeking Israeli citizenship or residency, 112 refugees from Ukraine, Russia, and Eritrea, 120 Israeli families displaced from their homes on the Gaza & Lebanon borders, 500 wounded soldiers.
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The Jerusalem Institute of Justice is making a substantial impact; read the quarterly highlights. Your continued support enables us to carry out our mission of protecting human rights, promoting the rule of law, and advocating on behalf of Israel.
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JIJ’s Free Legal Aid Department took a recent stand against the Israeli Interior Ministry’s decision to suspend visa services. This decision was made to
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Operating in the only democracy in the Middle East, the Jerusalem Institute of Justice uses the law to seek equality and fair treatment. Since the
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