For many Jews in recovery from addiction, there’s always been a missing piece: a support system that offers healing and community through a Jewish lens. That’s where 14Y Selah comes in and why UJA extended critical support.
Launched in 2023, as the isolation of the pandemic began to lift, Selah, as it was then known, gathered at Prospect Heights Shul. Founders Ben Lichtman and Jeremy Pool hoped 20 or 30 people might attend. Instead, 110 showed up. It was a powerful signal of how much a program like Selah was needed.
The grassroots program eventually found a permanent home with UJA’s partner the Educational Alliance 14 Street Y. Rebranded as 14Y Selah, it offers nightly virtual support groups and holds in-person programming, like monthly Shabbat dinners and holiday celebrations.
“I think we’re the only program offering community for people in recovery in a Jewish community center,” says Ariel Halpern, 14Y Selah’s director. According to him, a Jewish space is key.
“There are many recovery spaces out there, like AA and other 12-step programs, but they’re often based in churches. For many Jews, especially now, being in a distinctly Jewish space is important,” Ariel explains. “We’ve seen that firsthand, including a noticeable rise in attendance after events like Sydney. Selah gives people a place where they don’t have to choose between their recovery and their Jewish identity.”
Jeremy’s story underscores 14Y Selah’s emphasis on belonging. Though he is not Jewish, he was welcomed at Beit T’Shuvah in Los Angeles, where he met Ben more than a decade ago during their own recovery journeys.
“Judaism is the only lens through which I understand recovery,” Jeremy says. “No one ever told me that Jewish recovery, or Judaism, wasn’t for me. At 14Y Selah, we strive to offer that same radical acceptance.”
Why “Selah”?
“In Judaism, there’s comfort in wrestling with ideas without needing definitive answers,” Ben explains. “Similarly, recovery is not about being ‘fixed,’ but about the willingness to engage in the process. ‘Amen, Selah’ is that pause, that moment to reflect on what you’ve prayed over or made teshuvah around.”
That pause is transformative, adds Ben. “In recovery, learning to stop before reacting, before falling into patterns that don’t serve you, is huge.”
UJA has awarded 14Y Selah three grants totaling more than $400,000 — to support its continued growth at the 14th Street Y, and to expand its reach to Jewish communities in Riverdale, Long Island, and Westchester, ensuring that more people can find healing, belonging, and hope.
Karen’s Story
By the time Karen found 14Y Selah, she had already been in recovery for years. Still, she was living with the emotional fallout of her past: the trauma of life with a compulsive gambler, the loss of her home, and the painful rupture from her Orthodox community.
“I completely disconnected from everything Jewish, even though my soul still wanted a connection,” she recalled. “But I was too angry.”
During the isolation of Covid, her inner yearning grew louder than her anger. While attending online programming at the Teshuva Center, she heard about 14Y Selah, and promptly decided to join its Rosh Hashanah services.
“That moment changed everything,” she said. “It was the first time I felt I could fully be myself in a Jewish space and begin rebuilding a meaningful Jewish life.”
Karen became a regular participant in Selah’s programming, particularly its Shabbat dinners, which are now expanding to communities on Long Island and in the Bronx.
Recently, she invited a friend, newly sober but struggling to find her place among AA and traditional recovery groups, to a Shabbat dinner at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale.
“She texted me afterward to say how much she loved it and to thank me for bringing her,” Karen said, clearly proud to pay it forward. “There’s such a deep need in the Jewish world for spaces like Selah, where people are welcomed and totally accepted exactly as they are.”