Harriet Rossetto

Harriet Rossetto CEO, Founder, & Clinical Director

Harriet Rossetto is a woman of passion and vision whose life quest was to find her "calling," the place where she could make a difference and help to repair her corner of the world.

Harriet was blessed with a missionary spirit and a skeptical mind, which were often at war with one another.  She "heard a different drummer", which put her at odds with her peers and the institutions that trained and employed her in social work school.  Her passion to help people and to change the social system led to the accusation that she "over-identified with her clients".  Nonetheless, she received her Masters degree in Social Work from the University of Minnesota in 1964.

Fifteen years ago, past forty, Harriet finally recognized "the Call" and had the courage and vision to answer it.  It came in the form of a small ad in the Los Angeles Times looking for "a person of Jewish background and culture to help incarcerated Jewish offenders".   Her "still, small voice" cried out, "This is it!"  She embraced the challenge of an unpopular cause, fighting the widespread denial that "nice Jewish men and women" could be addicts and criminals of every kind and description.

Harriet soon recognized that most of the Jews in jail committed crimes as a by-product of the "dis-ease" of addictions.   Harriet instinctively knew that jailing these broken people neither "fixed" them nor protected society.  Again and again their untreated efforts to change returned them to jail within months of release.  It was a vicious cycle.  Harriet's frustration with the lack of community resources to release these people from the cycle of recidivism prompted her to envision what has become Beit T'Shuvah, the House of Return.

Her belief that addiction is a malady of the soul that requires spiritual healing inspired her to create a community that supported the process of recovery.  Harriet was the pioneer of this first residential program in the country that integrates Judaism, 12 Steps and psychotherapy and has been its guiding spirit for over 20 years.

The community has recognized Harriet's perseverance, commitment and originality in sustaining this unique program.  The program received the 1991 Isaiah Award from the Jewish Federation for meeting a previously unmet community need.  Harriet received the 1991 Alan Kassin award for professional achievement from the Jewish Communal Professionals and was honored by the Friends of Beit T'Shuvah at their 1999 dinner dance.  Later that year, Harriet received the Vision in Philanthropy Award.  Harriet is a much sought after speaker and lecturer in synagogues and community groups. She is a trainer for the National Association of Social Workers, teaching classes in addiction.

Mark Borovitz, Harriet's husband and the Rabbi of Beit T'Shuvah, describes her as a "lamed vovnick", one of the 36 Righteous people who, in Jewish tradition, are believed to sustain the world.  For Harriet personally, the greatest reward is the continuing privilege of witnessing and participating in the miracle of transformation.