Of the many programs sponsored by the Council for the Child in Placement, the Hanukah Gift Program is undoubtedly one of the most popular, eagerly anticipated throughout the year by the children in Israel’s residential groups homes. In the framework of the Council’s wide range of activities for enhancing the care, education and treatment of these children, the Hanukah Gift Program provides them with what many have never had before - the opportunity to visit a book store and select a book of their own choosing.

Deriving from the traditional Jewish custom gift giving from parents or relatives during Hanukah, these children, who are not living with their families, each receive sixty shekel in the form of a book voucher. This is a sum which most of us rarely think twice about spending. However, for the children in residential group homes, who are from poverty stricken, dysfunctional families, the amount is considerable. In purchasing a book with their own money they are also experiencing, as many have said in later years, one of the more significant events in their young lives.