Surviving Trauma

by Rina Liebeskind

Rina Liebeskind is the Education Director at Kol Ami Synagogue, traveling to Israel for an Educators’ Mission sponsored by the iCenter, the Jewish Education Project, and Shorashim. The goal of the mission is to show support to Israel by meeting with educators, hostage family members, and officials. While there, Rina will have the opportunity to volunteer and also tour some of the displaced community sites. As a visiting educator, Rina will bear witness to the events of October 7th and its aftermath and share her first-hand experience with learners back at home.

Today’s program was profound. We began our day in the Museum of Eretz Israel and met with Dana Wohlfeiler Lalkin, the founder and driving force of local testimonies.

We traveled to Kibbutz Shfayim, where the displaced community of Kfar Aza has been staying since the Oct. 7th massacre. We met with Yotam, who shared how his Kibbutz stepped up to provide a welcoming space for the 600-plus members of Kfar Aza. We also spoke with their education director, Ilana, who shared the thought process for creating an educational program for their kids’ preschool through high school.

One of the amazing programs that they provide the kids with is called Hagal Sheli-My Wave, founded by a young man by the name of Yaron, who shared how his program involves therapy alongside team building and surfing to help kids get over the trauma and gain self-confidence.

The hard part of the day was when we traveled to Kfar Aza and met with Chen Kottler, one of the surviving members.

Chen took us through the Kibbutz and recalled the events of the black Shabbat and the efforts to release the five young teens still in captivity.

She begged us to help by raising awareness back home and asked us to share photos with our communities.

To hone her request  I’m including the pictures that I took from right outside the dorms where the teens were taken from. Please share them on your social media if you want to help.