Debbie Gross is the founder and director of Tahel – Crisis Center for Religious Women and Children which has been serving women and children throughout Israel since 1993. Debbie made Aliyah to Israel in 1978 and since then has been a trailblazer in the religious community in the areas of domestic violence and child sexual abuse. She has developed educational workshop programs to give children and teenagers the skills to recognize and prevent sexual abuse and domestic violence. She has been an activist in helping communities throughout the world set up protocols to protect their children and women and has set up training programs for rabbis and religious professionals. She has trained thousands of volunteers in the areas of crisis intervention throughout Israel and the world.

Debbie has been invited to speak at international conferences throughout the world on the areas of child abuse and the prevention of child abuse in the religious community. She has given lectures at the World Congress on Family Law and Children’s Rights in Dublin, at the Charleston Child Trauma Conference and the International Conference on Child Abuse and Psychological Assessment in Barcelona.

In 2014, Debbie organized and hosted the first international conference in Jerusalem and then two successive conferences on “The Jewish Community Confronts Violence and Abuse” with over 650 participants from around the world. Debbie received the Jerusalem Mayor’s Volunteer Award in 2001 and the Jerusalem Foundation Teddy Kollek Award for Community Leadership and Excellence in 2003. In 2016 she was honored with the Israeli Knesset award for “Women Who Are Changing The World” and in 2017 “The Award for Recognition for Fighting the Battle Against Violence Against Women” by the Minister of Social Equality of Israel. Debbie lives in Ashkelon and is the proud grandmother of seventeen sabras.

Debbie made Aliyah in 1978 from Monsey, NY.