Dear Friends,
I hope that wherever you are in the world, you and your family are keeping safe and healthy. As we prepare for the Yamim Noraim, I want to share with you a wonderful new resource for anyone with questions about the halacha and philosophy of this season as it relates to mental health. I encourage you to read and share this invaluable booklet, written by Rabbi Yoni Rosensweig, an expert on the subject.
Across the globe, we can all see how people of all ages and backgrounds continue to struggle with the uncertainty, isolation, grief, and disruption caused by Covid-19. In awareness terms, we’re in a very different place than even a year ago. The secret is out. And yet, beyond the headlines, beyond the sympathy, do we know what we need to do for ourselves and for each other? Are we ready to acknowledge our own problems? Are we truly willing to change?
Thanks to your help, the Kav L’Noar team continues to do our best to create positive answers to those questions, and we are very pleased to welcome our new clinical supervisor to help guide us. Providing therapy and informal support to school students, treating therapy clients online and in clinics, running parenting workshops and seminars, putting out educational content across our social media channels, and building new infrastructure with new strategic partners which will enable us to make a deep, long-lasting impact on more clients and communities than ever before, it’s busy and we couldn’t do it alone.
This year, with your support, we will provide the emotional health component in the Rashi Foundation’s flagship program to transform some of Israel’s most disadvantaged and under-performing schools into centers of excellence. We will launch new programs to train Rabbis to address mental health issues. We will expand to locations where we’ve never operated before. Finally, our flagship therapy clinic is reopening in a new Jerusalem location and will operate for the first time through the Kupot Cholim - Israel’s national health insurance providers.
Please join us in making these plans a reality and support us this Rosh Hashanah.
We are also delighted to invite you to help us mark the retirement of Kav L’Noar’s beloved Founder, Dr. Ronald Wachtel. Please click here for more details.
Thank you as always to all our supporters for your encouragement, loyalty, and generosity.
I wish you and your loved ones a year of health and fulfillment. Shana Tova!
Ellie Rothstein Executive Director