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Issue 8, Spring 2018

Client Outreach: Tales of a Wandering Jew

By Deb Kram I’m sitting in yet another airport terminal, waiting to board my flight after presenting to and meeting with local survivors of the Holocaust. With a soft fluttering of wings, I notice a bird perched, not far, on the back of one of the seats. Smiling, I wonder to myself, will the bird…

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Issue 8, Spring 2018

Dehumanization in the Treatment of Elderly Holocaust Survivors and Other Elderly Persons with Histories of Prior Traumatization

By Irit Felsen, Ph.D. Abstract- This paper suggests that elderly trauma survivors are at elevated risk for re-traumatization in medical and long-term care settings. Findings from recent research in neuro-affective social cognitions are integrated with data about disparities in medical healthcare and with seminal insights from social psychology. The discussion of these various findings and their…

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Issue 7, Winter 2017

The Indestructible Jewish Soul

After viewing a film about how the faith of Holocaust survivors kept them strong during the Shoah, I noticed very little spotlight shone on those survivors whose faith, in contrast, was shattered or conflicted.

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Issue 7, Winter 2017 Winter 2017

Jewish Hospice – An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Healing does not always mean curing. Healing a wounded soul and helping guide it through the challenges of terminal illness is a significant expression of caring. It is the implementation of Jewish values in the lives of real people at a time when they are most vulnerable. This is Jewish Hospice.

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Issue 7, Winter 2017

Reflections from Son of Saul to Son of Alice

Viewing Son of Saul provided my mother and I with a unique, personalized confrontation with intimate moment-to-moment exposure to traumatic scenes on the screen, allowing us to witness the actors’ facial expressions, prosody and body gestures.

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Issue 7, Winter 2017

Snoezelen Rooms: Preserving Memories of Holocaust Survivors with Dementia

Snoezelen is a form of multi-sensory stimulation (MSS) that is used both to calm down Patients with Dementia (PwD) who are agitated, as well as to stimulate those that are disengaged from their surroundings

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Issue 7, Winter 2017

Psychological Dynamics in Aging Survivors of the Holocaust

Author: Dr. Eva Fogelman, Ph.D, Child Development Research The psychological dynamics of aging survivors of the Holocaust are worthy of inquiry because, indeed, their old age is marred by a massive traumatic historical catastrophe. For some Holocaust survivors, their lives were disrupted not only by barbaric persecution during the German occupation of European countries, but…

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Issue 7, Winter 2017

A Measure of Faith:  Child Holocaust Survivors and their Spiritual Dilemma

By Robert Krell M.D.    July 27, 2016 I am a child Holocaust survivor and must, therefore, begin with my own origins, including my struggle to develop what can only be described as a rudimentary connection to Judaism. Having been born in 1940 in German-occupied Holland, and already in hiding by mid-1942,   I entered the war…

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Issue 7, Winter 2017

How A Holocaust Survivor Incorporates Spirituality Into Her Life: A Case Study

By Lois Griff Lillian was born in a small town in Germany on August 8, 1923.  She describes her youth as wealthy and privileged.  She had a nanny who accompanied her and her sister to Kabbalat Shabbat (Friday night) services.  Her parents did not go to the synagogue with them.  She remembers the services very…

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Issue 6, Winter 2016

Witness Theater at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts in West Bloomfield, Michigan

By Charles Silow, PhD On April 8, 2013 at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts in West Bloomfield, Michigan, a group of six Holocaust survivors and five high schools students performed in a Witness Theater project in front of an audience of 400. Under the direction of Corrine Stavish, professor of Speech and Literature…