Issue 3: Winter 2013 Authors

Article: Aging Child Survivors

Dr. Yoram Barak is an assistant professor of Psychiatry at the Sackler School of Medicine of Tel-Aviv University, and director of the Psychogeriatric Department at the Abarbanel Mental Health Center. Trained in medicine and psychiatry at the Sackler School of Medicine, he became an Israel Medical Scientific Council Specialist in Psychiatry in 1993, and was awarded a Masters in Health Administration from Ben-Gurion University of Beer-Sheva, Israel in 2004.

Dr. Barak is also a consultant for the National Multiple Sclerosis Center in Israel and a special consultant on Positive Psychology for the Israel Defense Forces. He was president of the Israeli Association of Old-Age Psychiatry, and is currently on the editorial board of the Israel Journal of Psychiatry and the Open Psychiatry Journal. Research interests include multiple sclerosis, cancer, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive–compulsive disorder, suicide and geriatric psychiatry. He has published extensively in these areas, and is author and co-author of over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles.

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Articles: Healing Water: Guided Imagery and Music Therapy; Music Therapy

Amy Clements-Cortés, Ph.D., MusM, MTA, Mt-BC, FAMI is an academic advisor and instructor of music therapy at the University of Windsor, as well as a contracted academic staff member and clinical supervisor at Wilfrid Laurier University. She is also a senior music therapist at Baycrest Centre, Toronto, Canada. Dr. Clements-Cortés began her career as a music therapist, performer, and vocal teacher and obtained her masters and doctoral degrees from the University of Toronto. Her music studio, Notes By Amy, was founded in 1995. Dr. Clements-Cortés has worked extensively in geriatrics, adult mental health, complex continuing care, palliative care, and survivors of the Holocaust. Her work has been presented around the world and published in peer-reviewed journals. She has produced several music recordings, including a recent release, “Soothing Relaxation Journeys,” and “Episodes of Relationship Completion.” (Visit www.notesbyamy.com for more details.) Dr. Clements-Cortés is currently the president of The Canadian Association for Music Therapy, as well as the Clinical Commissioner for the World Federation of Music Therapy, and chairperson and member of the board of directors for the Room 217 Foundation.

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Article: Reflections from Son of Saul to Son of Alice
Beshert-It Was Meant to Be
Trauma in a Residential Setting
Manifestations of Generational Trauma

Dr. Halasz is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, consultant and adjunct senior lecturer at the School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University. He also has a private psychiatry practice.

From 1992-2005, Dr. Halasz was a member of the editorial boards of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, as well as the Australasian Psychiatry journal, where he continues to maintain his membership. He has co-edited three books and a number of chapters and journal articles on a range of developmental and psychiatric conditions. He contributed to “The Power of Witnessing: Reflections, Reverberations, and Traces of the Holocaust,” (eds. N. R. Goodman & M. B. Meyers, Routledge, 2012), based on his mother’s VHF Holocaust testimony. Dr. Halasz has appeared on television and radio, including ABC TV documentaries “Compass and Catalyst,” “All in the Mind” and “Encounter”. Finally, he is a regular panellist on the Triple ‘R’s ‘Radiotherapy’ since the 1990s.

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Article: Conference Presentation: End of Life

Judith Hassan was awarded a Bachelors of Science in Human Relations (Joint Honours in Psychology and Sociology), followed by a postgraduate qualification at London University in Social Work (Distinction). Ms. Hassan has worked for 43 years at Jewish Care in England. Her role as director of services for Holocaust Survivors and Refugees there included ongoing direct practice, supervision of a multidisciplinary team and the leadership and management of services.

For 36 years she pioneered and developed specialist therapeutic services for Holocaust survivors and refugees in partnership with those who suffered in the Shoah. Her endeavours consist of the establishment of Shalvata in 1990, and the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre in London in 1993. Her book, “A House Next Door to Trauma,” documents her internationally renowned research on survivor trauma and on those working with survivors. For the past 20 years she has directly worked with refugees from the Bosnian war, served as consultant to the Rwandan Survivors Service, as well as with other professionals in Europe to develop expertise on war related trauma. She has been a key presenter and organiser at international conferences in Europe and in Israel. In 2007, Ms. Hassan was awarded the National Care Awards Lifetime Achievement in Care, and in 2008 she was made an OBE by the Queen for her services to Holocaust Survivors.

Ms. Hassan is currently Special Advisor on Therapeutic Services for survivors and refugees from war trauma. She provides consultation for professionals working with refugees from Darfur and with Holocaust survivors.

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Article: Wartime Experiences and Late Life Coping

Since 1991, Bea Hollander-Goldfein has been the director of the Transcending Trauma Project, a comprehensive research project investigating coping and adaptation after extreme trauma at the Council for Relationships (CFR). CFR, the Division of Couple and Family Studies in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, part of the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, is a non-profit outpatient treatment and training center. Dr. Hollander-Goldfein is the director of the AAMFT-accredited Post Graduate Certificate Program in Marriage and Family Therapy, as well as the director of research and supervision at the Council for Relationships. She is an instructor and supervisor in the Post Graduate Training Program and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Jefferson Medical College. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University and subsequently attained certification in marriage and family therapy. Systemic theory has guided her clinical practice and research activities for 30 years. She has presented broadly on the topic of trauma and the importance of an integrated model of coping and adaptation. She has also published in the fields of marriage and family therapy and trauma Studies. She is the senior author of the book, “Transcending Trauma: Survival, Resilience and Clinical Implications in Survivor Families” (Routledge, 2012).

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Article: Wartime Experiences and Late Life Coping

Nechama Horwitz works remotely from Jerusalem as a research assistant for the Transcending Trauma Project. She has a BA from Brandeis University in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies and Politics, and an MA from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Political Science where she received the Dean’s Fellowship and the Rector’s Award in 2010. She also works as a research assistant for the Guttman Center at the Israel Democracy Institute.

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Article: Wartime Experiences and Late Life Coping

Nancy Isserman Ph.D. is a senior research Fellow at the Council for Relationships. Since 1993, Dr. Isserman has been the co-director of the Transcending Trauma Project, a qualitative research project consisting of in-depth interviews of almost 300 Holocaust survivors and three generation family members on resilience and coping before, during and after World War II. She is the co-author of “Transcending Trauma: Survival, Resilience, and Clinical Implications” (Routledge, 2012). Dr. Isserman is also affiliated with the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History, Temple University. She has published articles, book reviews, and co-edited books on such topics as trauma and Holocaust survivors, the contemporary Jewish experience, marriage and family relationship education, and tolerance in survivors. Dr. Isserman received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her dissertation, “I Harbor No Hate: Tolerance and Intolerance in Holocaust Survivors,” received the 2004-2005 Braham Dissertation Award.

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Article: Trauma in a Residential Setting

Magalí Kaplan is a projects manager at Jewish Care in Victoria, Australia, responsible for the administration and distribution of Claims Conference funds to Victorian Holocaust Survivors, as well as the distribution of emergency aid supports to Holocaust Survivors. In addition, Magalí has worked on a number of research projects and publications, including a report on caring for Jewish clients, and a resource kit on substance abuse in the Jewish community. Ms. Kaplan has completed a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Philosophy.

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Articles: Conference Presentation: Survivor Resilience | A Measure of Faith: Child Holocaust Survivors and their Spiritual Dilemma | Preparing for the Care of the Aging: Child Survivors of the Holocaust

Robert Krell M.D., F.R.C.P.(C)
Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry,
The University of British Columbia
Distinguished Life Fellow, American Psychiatric Association

Dr. Krell was born in The Hague, Holland on August 5th, 1940. He was hidden from 1942 to 1945 with the Munnik family and returned to his parents, who also survived in hiding. Their families of origin were all murdered in Auschwitz and Sobibor. In 1951, the Krells moved to Vancouver, B.C. Robert Krell graduated from The University of British Columbia with an M.D. in 1965, interned in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia General Hospital, and continued in psychiatric training at Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, Stanford University Hospital in Palo Alto and then returned to The University of British Columbia.

In 1970, he became F.R.C.P. (C) and in 1971 a Diplomat of the American Boards of Psychiatry and Neurology. He was appointed Assistant Professor in Psychiatry in January, 1971 and served as Professor of Psychiatry until 1995, when he became Professor Emeritus. In his professional career, he was Director of Residency Training for ten years and for twenty-five years Director of Child and Family Psychiatry at the UBC Health Sciences Centre and B.C.’s Children’s Hospital.

As a volunteer in the community, Robert Krell served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Jewish Congress – Pacific Region from 1972, Vice-Chair for nine years, Chair (1986-1989) and National Vice-President (1989-1992).
During that time he founded in 1975, with Dr. Graham Forst of Capilano College as co-Chair and Professor William Nicholls, head of Religious Studies-UBC, the Standing Committee on Holocaust Education, which teaches more than 1,000 British Columbia high school students annually. Outreach programs serve additional thousands of students in the Interior and on Vancouver Island. The program serves as an educational tool to combat prejudice, racism and anti-Semitism.

In his private psychiatric practice, Dr. Krell treated Holocaust survivors and their families and Dutch survivors of Japanese concentration camps.

Dr. Krell pioneered audiovisual documentation of Holocaust survivors in the Vancouver area in 1978 and expanded this program in 1983 and 1984 to tape 120 eyewitness accounts. In 1980 he urged the Canadian Jewish Congress to establish a national program which resulted in a nationwide audiovisual project taping 70 survivors.

Being himself a child survivor of the Holocaust, he assisted with the formation of child survivor groups, first in Los Angeles between 1982 and 1984 and then in Vancouver. He served on the International Advisory Council of the Hidden Child Conference that organized a gathering in New York in 1991 for approximately 1,500 child survivors who came from many countries to meet for the first time and have met annually ever since.

In 1985, Dr. Krell founded the Vancouver Holocaust Centre Society for Education and Remembrance, which built
a memorial for Holocaust survivors, and was unveiled in 1987 at the Schara Tzedeck Cemetery.

Dr. Krell established the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre that opened on November 7th, 1994 in order to provide educational programs for high school children, warning of the consequences of unchecked racism and intolerance. For these activities, he received in 1998 the State of Israel Bonds Elie Wiesel Remembrance Award and in 2011, the Boston University Hillel Lifetime Achievement Award for “bringing solace and understanding to generations of Holocaust Survivors.”

On January 27th, 2012, he was the Keynote speaker at the United Nations International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In November 2012, the Holocaust Educational Foundation at Northwestern University recognized his “distinguished contributions to Holocaust education” and on December 5th he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal, “as an outstanding human rights educator” On August 24, 2014 he received an award from The World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the Holocaust and Descendants at its Gathering in Berlin. March 4th, 2016 he was recognized with a Governor General Caring Canadian Award for founding the Vancouver Holocaust Centre and for his lifelong work promoting human rights and social justice. He has authored six books, co-edited three and written twenty book chapters and over fifty journal articles. For information on his newest book: Memoiries:Sounds from Silence, contact memoiries2016@gmail.com. Presently his interests remain the psychiatric treatment of aging survivors of massive trauma and participating in programs against racism and prejudice. Dr. Krell is married and has three children and nine grandchildren.

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Article: Trauma in a Residential Setting

Rod Myer is a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. He has spent 25 years working as a business journalist in print and online and has written and published two biographies of Australian business figures and a book of his own poems. He has worked in politics as a speech writer and researcher as well. Finally, Mr. Myer has accomplished considerable work as a volunteer both within and outside of the Jewish community.

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Article: Holocaust Survivors of Sexual Violence

Dr. Rochelle G. Saidel is the founder and executive director of Remember the Women Institute, a non-profit organization based in New York City that carries out and encourages research and cultural projects that integrate women into history. Her own focus is on women during the Holocaust. She is co-editor of “Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust,” part of the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute’s series on Jewish women, making her a National Jewish Book Awards finalist in the Women’s Studies category. Her newest book, “Mielec, Poland: The Shtetl That Became a Nazi Concentration Camp,” is partially based on research done as a Fellow at the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem. Other books she’s written include “The Jewish Women of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp,” rendering her a National Jewish Book Awards finalist in the Holocaust Studies and Women’s Studies categories; “Never Too Late To Remember: The Politics Behind New York City’s Holocaust Museum;” and “The Outraged Conscience: Seekers of Justice for Nazi War Criminals in America.” Dr. Saidel is also the editor of an expanded edition of the memoir of the sister of former New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, entitled “Fiorello’s Sister: Gemma La Guardia Gluck’s Story.” Besides contributing chapters to a number of books, she was also the creator and curator of “Women of Ravensbrück, Portraits of Courage: Art by Julia Terwilliger” for the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg.

Dr. Saidel has lectured internationally on the Holocaust for more than thirty-five years and was a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar Visiting Scholar for a seminar on Cultural Responses to the Holocaust in America and Abroad at Brandeis University.

Dr. Saidel received her Ph.D. in Political Science from The Graduate School and University Center, City University of New York. She made aliyah to Israel in 2001, and currently divides her time among Jerusalem, New York City, and São Paulo, Brazil.

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