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The organization works through three main tracks: monthly financial assistance, emotional care, and continuous personal contact.
By Shula Rosen
Israel Orphans of 10/7 now supports 151 children affected by the October 7 attacks, a scale that founder Marlene Kolangi says she never imagined when she first arrived in Israel to understand what young survivors needed.
Her effort began with a question she could not shake: Who was caring for the children who lost both parents, whether physically or through trauma severe enough to leave surviving caregivers unable to function?
Kolangi, a fashion designer from Queens and a single mother, said she initially searched for a centralized list of the newly orphaned and was stunned to learn one did not exist.
She began visiting homes on her own, meeting babies as young as 14 months who had no parents left to raise them and grandparents suddenly responsible for toddlers. “Their lives were shattered,” she told Arutz Sheva, describing families who had lost stability, housing, and a sense of safety in a single day.
Those early visits turned a short-term plan into a long-term mission.
She said many children were also living with parents who survived but were mentally absent, overwhelmed by grief, trauma or the aftermath of captivity.
Kolangi found spouses of hostages who were consumed by fear, families with no emotional bandwidth, and children navigating their pain alone. “There was nobody there for the kids,” she said.
The organization now works through three main tracks: monthly financial assistance, emotional care, and continuous personal contact.
Families receive Tav Hazahav gift cards, typically amounting to $500 to $750 per child each month. Kolangi said she fundraises the full amount herself.
The group also established a play therapy center designed for children resistant to traditional therapy. She said the model allows young survivors to work through trauma without realizing they are in treatment, and she has watched dramatic progress. She also speaks to every family weekly, often spending nine hours each Friday on calls.
Israel Orphans of 10/7 operates on a $3 million budget, and Kolangi said she has never taken a salary. She is now raising funds for new therapy centers through the Healing Our Heroes campaign, which seeks $1.5 million to support widows, children and young survivors entering a second year of recovery.
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