Susan Kaplansky was born in 1964 to Ellen and Al Grant and grew up in Westchester, NY.  Her grandparents hosted a family from Eilat whose son, Yuval, was born with a serious heart defect and had come to the US for surgeries.  Susan and Yuval became best friends.  Eyal Kaplansky was Yuval older brother’s best friend.  After finishing his IDF service Eyal moved to New York.  Ofir, Yuval’s older brother, introduced Eyal and Susan, and they found their soulmates in each other.  They married and moved to Jerusalem.

Susan was an artist, and she believed that art had a healing power.  In her home, she helped many teens one-on-one through art, but she dreamed of setting up an organization to help many more.   When Yuval passed away, Susan decided to start an organization in his name, but before she could she was diagnosed with cancer and died the next year.  At her shiva, Eyal decided to see her dream through and spoke to Avital Goel about setting up the at-risk center.  Officially named the Yuval & Susan Foundation, Susan’s House was born.