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] does not lose hope: The homeless person spends time in the municipal library [
does not lose hope: the homeless person spends time in the
municipal library In the coldest and stormiest week of the year, Leonid Asipov (32) spent time in the streets of Ra'anana. He has been here for a month under the open sky, without food, without warm clothing and without money. But while many homeless people are in great despair, Asipov has hope: he spends more than 10 hours a day in Ra'anana's municipal library, reading, writing articles, working on a startup he started and waiting for someone to discover him and save his
life
Roy Rubinstein
Published: 10.01.13, 14:34
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Leonid Asipov (32) has already forgotten how much warmth there is in the world – the warmth of a hug, the warmth of love, the warmth of home. This week, when the great storm raged outside, he slept in stairwells on the streets of Ra'anana, wrapped himself in a thin blanket that had been attached to him for years. On Sunday morning, he was even reported dead by police after he appeared to be lying in the doorway of a stairwell on one of the city's streets, but Asipov has no intention of giving up so quickly. True, he doesn't have a home, he sleeps in cardboard, he looks very neglected and not always clean. But he has great hope. To learn as much as possible and develop a startup that will extricate him from the cycle of distress he has found himself in over the past two years.



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Every morning at 8:45 a.m., he shows up like clockwork at the municipal library in Ra'anana, reads a lot and works on the computer. He builds software, writes physics articles, and promotes the website he founded in recent years. Around 7 p.m., when the library closes, he goes out into the cold street.



For three years now, Asipov has had no roof over his head and is moving from city to city in Israel. First in his car, which was stolen in Be'er Sheva about two years ago, and then by hitchhiking and on foot. He arrived in Ra'anana three weeks ago, and since then he has been living between Tiv Taam's carton, Yad Labanim House, and stairwells and abandoned buildings. "It's not easy to be homeless, but you get used to it," he says this week, "There's a lot of food on the street and in Ra'anana, very kind people. Right now, money is less important to me. Just to learn and develop more and more of the site I initiated, because who knows, maybe this will be the thing that will save my life."



Wandering
Journey When he immigrated to Israel at the age of ten, from St. Petersburg to Jerusalem with his mother, Asipov never dreamed that his life would unfold in this way on the streets of the Holy Land. Adolescence did not contain any hints of what might happen. He did his full matriculation at the school in Jerusalem, military service in Givati and even a degree in life sciences. But three years ago, following a family secret revealed to him by his mother, his life changed. The mother told him that the person he had considered to be his father until now was not his father at all. "Suddenly I realized that I had grown up in a lie, and from that moment on, life at home was difficult, until I couldn't. I left the house and we haven't been in touch since."



At first, Asipov left for a rented apartment, but was unable to pay the rent because he did not have a permanent job. Having no other choice, he took his personal belongings and moved into his car. He decided to start a new life and moved to Be'er Sheva. "People in Israel have a hard time with homeless people," he says, "In Beersheba they didn't let me rest, there was a street gang there who took care of me, they slandered me that I was mentally ill, they caught me and tried to forcibly hospitalize me. At the hospital, I was discharged immediately. Already that day, the thugs found me again, even though I moved the car elsewhere. They rocked my car all night and I realized that if I wanted to live, I had to flee the city."