Opening the Discussion of Terror & Our Social Responsibility

Opening the Discussion of Terror & Our Social Responsibility

Strength to Strength in conjunction with Congregation Israel of Springfield, Temple Shaarei Shalom& Temple Beth Ahm held a special evening on Sunday night, March 15th to discuss a topic that is not often spoken about. The discussion focused on terrorism today, how to cope and respond to it and how to talk to children about it.

The packed room listened while Dr. Michelle Pearlman, Advisory Board member of Strength to Strength and trauma expert, discussed various tools about how to talk to children at any age about terrorism and what is going on in the world around us. Then panel guests, Wendy Lanski, 9/11 survivor, Lori Ssebulime, Uganda survivor, Pam Kramer, Uganda survivor, Lisa Weiss, bereaved family member of Rabbi Levine z"l victim of the Har Nof Massacre this past November in Jerusalem, Israel, Dovid Salzman, Israel survivor and Sarri Singer, founder of Strength to Strength and Israel survivor, addressed the audience about their personal experiences and then answered many questions that the community had about dealing with the reality of terrorism today.  The evening could have continued for hours but the most important thing was that it started this conversation between community members and victims of terrorism in order to better understand and protect ourselves.

Everyone involved in this program realized the importance of this discussion and Strength to Strength hopes to facitiliate further evenings like this in other communities in the New York/New Jersey area. Special thank you to the Springfield community and the synagogues who co-sponsored this event, Dr. Michelle Pearlman, all the panel participants, and Rachel Beer for setting things in motion to make this special evening happen.

If you are interested in hosting a simliar evening in your community, please reach out to info@stosglobal.org or sarri@stosglobal.org.