JTA on "Traumatic Invalidation" and the Jewish Experience
Miri Bar-Halpern and Jaclyn Wolfman strike a nerve with a paper about the mental toll of being told your distress and fears don’t count.
About this Article
This article from JTA discusses a new study from Miri Bar-Halpern and Jaclyn Wolfman.
The Boston-area trauma therapists, writing in the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, give a different name to the pain many Jews have felt over the last harrowing 20 months: “traumatic invalidation.”
They apply the term to what Jews have reported in the months after the Hamas attacks: “Rather than being met with compassion and care,” they write, “many were instead met with a stunning mix of silence, blaming, excluding, and even outright denying the atrocities of Oct. 7 along with any emotional pain stemming from them.”
Discover more
One of the successes of J-Life is that it continues to build community among parents. Most of the learners who started in kindergarten have stayed to continue going on to the upper grades. Parents express that they have a lot of fun participating in J-Life and that they enjoy coming to these experiences.
J-JEP is a multi-denominational collaboration between Beth Shalom, a traditional Conservative congregation, and Rodef Shalom, a Classical Reform congregation. The learning in J-JEP reflects the belief that no two households are the same.
Practical and engaging PD for Jewish educators of all educational frameworks that puts Jewish Peoplehood at the center.
Temple Adat Elohim, Thousand Oaks, CA. Families come together twice a month, once to experience Shabbat as a B’Yachad community and another time to help heal the world by participating in Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) projects
Congregation Kol Ami White Plains, NY. Mesorah (tradition) is a choice-based model for 7th-12th graders that includes CORE learning and hands-on, experiential, project-based learning electives.
Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York. Mitzvah Corps is a hands-on learning model for 7th-grade students with eight units based on ethical mitzvoth each with Learning, Action, and Reflection components.