Meet Avi Herman

I was born in Brooklyn in 1992. From the age of 9 and for more than twenty years, I lived under the grip of addiction. Everything changed when I reached the point where I finally knew I could no longer do it alone. I finally asked for help!

Shalom. My name is Avi Herman. Today I am grateful to be more than 1,000 days in recovery.

As I started to rebuild my own life, I continued meeting young Jewish men and women facing the very same battles I had fought; addiction, mental illness, trauma, homelessness, and profound isolation. Again and again, I saw people who wanted to recover but had nowhere safe to live, nowhere to belong, and no community prepared to walk beside them after treatment ended.

That realization became Bayit Miklot.

With little more than faith, determination, and a single home in Dallas, I opened my door to those who had nowhere else to go. What began with one house and a handful of residents has grown into a community built on dignity, accountability, compassion, and hope.

During my period of addiction, I experienced overdoses, psychiatric hospitalizations, countless rehabilitation programs, destructive relationships, and the overwhelming feeling that I no longer belonged anywhere—not even within my own community.

There were moments when life felt completely without purpose and I believed I was beyond help. Everything changed for me in 2023, when I reached the point where I could no longer do it alone. I asked for help.