After Nava Rachel Indig, a mother of five and grandmother of 10, tragically died two years ago following an exhausting battle with cancer, Jerusalem-based businessman Moshe Indig came up with a way to immortalize his late wife. Together with TELEM director Benayahu Dvir, he decided to establish Beit Nava, a shelter for religious teenage girls in distress, which was inaugurated last week. The shelter helps girls from broken homes, violent and sexually abusive environments and religious backgrounds where they did not fit in, among other adversities, offering them a place where they can be safe and grow financially, academically, and psychologically. At Beit Nava they receive sensitive and personalized care in a family environment where they can interact with other girls and teachers, study and have a home. The opening ceremony was an evening gala event held on April 3, the eve of the second Hebrew anniversary of Nava's passing. It was an elegant affair attended by her husband, children, mother and siblings, as well as Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau, United Torah Judaism MK Meir Porush and Dr. Hagai Ben-Artzi, a Bar-Ilan University lecturer and brother in-law of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who all knew Nava personally. The customary affixing of a mezuza on the front door was followed by the unveiling of a plaque that reads “Beit Nava, in memory of Nava Rachel Indig,” and the lighting of a candle in her memory by her son Dvir. A sit-down dinner was served in the Bell Tower's hall, and while the close to 300 attendees ate, various speakers paid tribute to Indig. First was Chief Rabbi David Lau, who spoke of his and his wife's personal relationship with the deceased. He recalled a Shabbat that she and her family had spent at his home in Shoham and told how Indig had brought fresh halla and lots of food for Shabbat and how she was a real “eshet hayil”(woman of valor) and that the Beit Nava shelter was a perfect way to immortalize her generosity, humility and warm spirit. When Dvir spoke he compared the shelter to the bells on the robes of the high priests in the Temple, that rang out sounds of light and love, saying that the Bell Tower's Beit Nava was a light of love in the dark, offering girls a place to go to when they have nowhere else to turn. Ben-Artzi spoke of his personal relationship with Nava. “She had a kindness that is sorely missed.” Next to speak were girls from the shelter who each shared the way in which TELEM and the shelter had changed and enriched their lives. With 30% of teenagers in Israel in risk of being victims of violence, Beit Nava is fighting to save them in its humble manner very fitting its name. To donate or volunteer call Beit Nava at 587-7740.
