Meet Our Founder & CEO – Avi Herman
Shalom. My name is Avi Herman. I was born in Brooklyn in 1992. At just 9 years old, in 2001, I smoked my first joint. That single moment started more than two decades of addiction that almost took my life.
For most of those years I was lost in New York and Israel — multiple overdoses, psych ward stays, endless rehabs, negative company, and a painful feeling of being an outcast in my own community. Life had no meaning. I felt completely alone and hopeless.
On September 28, 2023, baruch Hashem, I hit true rock bottom and finally asked for help. Today I am over 900 days clean — the hardest and most meaningful thing I have ever done. I turned chaos into gratitude.
But recovery opened my eyes to something bigger. I kept seeing the same young Jewish faces in the rooms — people my age fighting the exact same battles with addiction, mental health, trauma, homelessness, and disconnection from family and faith. Many had nowhere safe to go.
I’m breaking...
Two years ago I started Bayit Miklot with nothing more than a prayer and a couch in Dallas. Now the beds are full of real people who had nowhere else. I’m still here scrubbing fridges at midnight and answering 3 a.m. cries for help.
The truth is — I just don’t have it in me any longer to just sit by. I don’t have the strength left to bury more friends. I don’t have any more tears to spill when I hear another person say they are done and don’t have the power to move on. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.
That pain lit a fire in me. The Torah gave me three principles that became the foundation of everything we do at Bayit Miklot:
- Train each person according to his own way — We meet every resident exactly where they are.
- Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor — We refuse to watch people suffer in silence.
- Repairing the world — Every life we help rebuild makes the world more whole.
Why choose Bayit Miklot — and why trust me?
I lived the exact nightmare you or your loved one is living right now. Most places are run by people who never walked in those shoes. I did. I climbed out with Hashem’s help, and I turned that pain into a real Home of Refuge — a place that combines clinical excellence with authentic Jewish values, structure, community, and love. It’s not an institution. It’s a bayit. And I’m still in the trenches every single day.
If you or someone you love is struggling, please know you are not alone. There is real hope here. There is a home here. And there is someone who truly understands.
Reach out today for a confidential conversation.
Phone: 917-676-2014
Email: info@bayitmiklot.com