Jewish Community Programs

This is still hard. And we wish it weren’t. We wish we were wistful about 2021 coming to an end. 
We wish the pandemic was definitively coming to an end. And so, as we look ahead to 2022, let’s begin to imagine how we will recover from this crisis.

There are many ways to affect healing. Jewish Law requires us to seek the best medical care we can.  But our Torah also recognizes that there are other paths to healing that walk hand-in-hand with medical care. 

Our lives have been turned upside down during this pandemic in one way or another. As we try to make sense of all this, we may find an underlying theme: Loss. Perhaps we can use some of the rich Jewish tradition of mourning loss as a framework to look at and maybe understand what we are experiencing.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. What does that mean? Verbal, physical and mental abuse come from all walks of life, varying age groups, all backgrounds and education levels and it occurs in all our neighborhoods, but it is not always easy to detect.

Since 1996, the Orthodox Network has presented the day-long training many times.  The Network’s bi-monthly meetings, which moved successfully to Zoom in 2020, have helped hundreds of colleagues from many agencies to form professional relationships and learn about services, best practices, and community needs.

This year, the Jewish High Holy Days and Suicide Awareness Month coincide on the lunar calendar. In fact, World Suicide Prevention Day lands on Friday, September 10, 2021, falling squarely between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a time when we often reflect on issues of life and death and search for meaning, purpose and identity in our lives.

In March we met Lauren, a 16 year-old with a behavioral addiction to social media. Because of her time online, she was losing sleep, seeing her grades slip and having less time and more conflict with her family. What does abstinence look like in a situation like this?

The dedicated chaplains at JCFS Chicago are committed to uplifting community members. “We listen,” Rabbi Joseph S. Ozarowski said. “It’s all about relationships.” In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, these success stories illustrate those relationships and the journey of mental health.

The long-awaited vaccine is accessible to more and more people, yet many feel ambivalent. The sense of apprehension and even dread at the thought of life returning to “normal” is called “re-entry anxiety."  

Addiction wears many masks. It can look like physical, psychological and spiritual dependence on substances or the use of devices.