A look into the past

The Summit Institute was established by three therapy and education professionals who immigrated to Israel from the USA, where they were involved in the rehabilitation of teenagers with organic difficulties. The late Zvi Stiskin, Prof. Stanley Schneider and Dave Schonburon founded the Institute in Israel at the beginning of 1973. In its early years, the Institute's activities, which were established in the settlement of Almagor at the foot of the Golan, supported patients who came to Israel from the USA.

The Yom Kippur War forced the Institute to move to Jerusalem where it was located at 44 Shimon Street. With the success in rehabilitating those boys and girls who came from the USA, the Institute's activities expanded to Israeli youths as well, and in 1976 an agreement was signed with the kibbutz movement, through Dr. Mordechai Kapman, and twelve additional rehabilitation patients came to the Summit .

In 1977 Haim Deutsch took over the administration of the adolescent community. Later, in 1981, an outpatient clinic was also opened at the Summit, under the management of the late Hanita Berman, a framework that would soon become a unit of hostels and later the therapeutic community for adults under the management of Liora Harel.

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In 1980, the then Minister of Health, Eliezer Shostak, visited the Summit, and following the visit, the Institute received recognition and a license and began to accept youth at the national level, not only from kibbutzim.

All three settings - the American unit, the Israeli unit and the outpatient clinic - were served by Summit's vocational rehabilitation center, where all the rehabilitated would go every morning.

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The expansion of Summit's activities results in a major organizational change. In 1989, Haim Deutsch moved to the position of Deputy Director of the Institute and became responsible for the Israeli division, and Stanley Schneider continued to manage and focus on youth from abroad. Towards 1994, the insurance funding from the USA was stopped, and the American unit was closed. Shortly after, Stanley Schneider finished his position and the management of the Institute passed into the hands of Haim Deutsch.

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Haim Deutsch managed Summit until June 2009. Under his directorship, the rehabilitation units expanded, and after the mental health reform, the sheltered housing framework was also established.

In 2003, Summit won the tender to operate the foster care service in the Jerusalem and Southern districts, and later, towards the middle of 2008, the "Mahot" center, a parent center for teenagers, was added to the Institute's activities, in cooperation with the Jerusalem Municipality and the Ministry of Labor and Welfare. In 2018, Summit won the operation of the therapeutic foster care services in the Jerusalem and Southern districts.

​In June 2009, the management of the Institute was assumed by Yoni Bogat.