By Debra Rich Gettleman

When someone says “fashionista,” your first thought probably isn’t “prostitute.” But thanks to an innovative Israeli NGO, Turning the Tables, a small cadre of Israeli prostitutes in Tel Aviv and Haifa, are finding a way out of the oldest profession in the world.

Turning the Tables has been running a fashion school, Yotsrot Atid (creating a future) since 2011. They enroll 100 women annually and the program, which focuses largely on building skills and self-esteem, is making a difference.

The most recent Israeli Welfare Ministry report from 2018 estimated that there were approximately 14,000 active prostitutes in the country. But that number barely scratches the surface according to the organization’s leadership. That same study cited the average lifespan of a prostitute at 46 years old.

TURNING THE TABLES founder Lilach Tzur Ben Moshe stands for a portrait in the Yotsrot Atid fashion studio in Tel Aviv, last month. (credit: ARIEL SHEINBERG)

Turning the Tables founder, Lilach Tzur Ben Moshe was inspired to start the organization after a troubling stint of living in Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station. The area, considered a “meat market,” is rampant with drug abuse, sleazy Johns, and a whole bunch of people eager to take advantage of women in prostitution. Many of these unfortunate women find themselves descending further into debt, thus making their industry exit nearly impossible.

Leemor Segal, the organization’s resource development manager, says that over the years they have seen about 3000 women in prostitution come through the fashion program. She explains in a recent Jerusalem Post article by Ariel Sheinberg, that these women “Have gotten into prostitution as a result of abuse that was not only not addressed and treated, but many times it was twisted.” When women feel out of choices and cornered, they often turn to the only way they think they can earn a living. But that life pretty much ensures a future of seeing oneself only as a victim.

Turning the Tables looks to rehabilitate the individual, downsizing the cycle one woman at a time.

In Sheinberg’s article, Segal talks about some of the intakes she’s been through where women seem completely lost. She often tells women “Listen to me: I see you. I hear you. You’re smart. You’re talented. You’re funny. You’re beautiful. You are going to be in a different place a year from now. I know it.”

With a program completion rate of about 70%, the majority of those women do in fact find themselves in a much more positive and hopeful place 12 months later. The women who commit fully to the program, which includes mental health care and social worker visits, establish financial and emotional stability that allows them to exit the profession and start anew..