Klafte brightens up downtown

A fashion store and social enterprise seeks to improve the lives of Jerusalem's needy young adults through selling contemporary fashion at a low price.

By YAEL BRYGEL
Updated: JULY 30, 2015 15:02
klafte (photo credit: YAEL BRYGEL)
klafte
(photo credit: YAEL BRYGEL)
A cluster of spiritless and dated storefronts on Agrippas Street in downtown Jerusalem is the setting for an upbeat new store displaying the latest fashions. Klafte is a social enterprise that seeks to improve the lives of some of Jerusalem’s needy young adults by providing them with on-the-job training in the retail sector.
With the support of an anonymous Jewish Canadian retailer who donated a vast collection of never-been-worn clothing to the cause, Klafte opened its doors last week and is awaiting its first staff members: a group of 10 women, aged 18 to 25, who will begin working over the next year and have been identified by government welfare offices as being in need of support.
“We wanted to wait until the store was up and running before integrating these young women,” explains Smadar Portnoy, manager of the Klafte initiative. “It was important to us that they feel they are coming into a place that is organized and supportive.”
The staff will work at the store for a year or more, accompanied by a social worker, and will be provided with a salary and training – ultimately using their new skills to secure employment in retail. If all goes to plan, these women will be replaced by new staff members who will undergo a similar process.
The shop’s selling point is its unique fusion of a social agenda, contemporary fashion and low prices. Items range from NIS 15 to NIS 99, with a selection that includes everyday wear and evening gowns. “People get excited when they come in and see nice clothes, and even more excited when they realize that they are contributing to something positive,” Portnoy says.
Indeed, Portnoy and the nonprofit behind the initiative, the Dualis Social Investment Fund, make every effort to ensure that Klafte has the look and feel of a regular fashion store, with all the trimmings this entails. A wooden display table is prominently positioned in the center of the store, covered with colorful items; a series of stylish clothing cubbyholes lines the walls; and industrial lighting fixtures are suspended from the ceiling. Attentive shoppers will notice the small print on the storefront sign, which translates from Hebrew as “A fashion store with a social bent.”
Portnoy’s friendly, open disposition reinforces the message. “Customers discover what the store is about, and it creates a feeling of positive action. People from all walks of life are coming into the store, asking questions and talking with one another,” she notes.
The shop’s name is also an attention-grabber. Klafte is a notoriously insulting Yiddish word that apparently has been redefined in Jerusalem street parlance to “mean someone who is bold and not a freier” (sucker). Portnoy would like to inspire in Klafte’s staff this kind of brazen and empowered sense of self.
Klafte is an initiative of the Dualis Social Investment Fund, a nonprofit founded by business and social entrepreneur Hanoch Barkat; its other initiatives include Tel Aviv’s Liliyot Restaurant, which trains and employs at-risk teens. Klafte project partners include the municipality’s welfare department and ELEM – Youth in Distress.
Klafte is Dualis’s first initiative in the capital; it entered the retail industry three years ago with the opening of the Women’s Courtyard in Jaffa Port, which trains and employs girls and young women in distress. In recent months, Jerusalem also recently welcomed the clothing store Haboydem, proving transitional employment for the mentally ill.