The Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, in cooperation with Jewish Family Services, is hosting trauma experts from Project C.H.A.I., a project of Chai Lifeline International, to help explain to parents how to talk to their children about the tragic events last week when three people died following shootings at the Jewish Community Campus and Village Shalom. The event will be held at 7 p.m. tonight, Thursday, April 24, in the Social Hall of the Jewish Community Campus. It is open to adults in the community.
“We are having a trauma specialist come in from Chai Lifeline in New York. This agency is sending a social worker out to us and one of the directors of their trauma and bereavement department to offer advice and support,” said Ayala R. Zoltan Rockoff, HBHA school psychologist.
The Bellows Family National Crisis Intervention Program, Project C.H.A.I., is a network of programs to help families, schools, camps, synagogues and community institutions cope with an untimely death or medical crisis. Dr. Rockoff said Dr. David Fox, director of interventions and community education for the crisis intervention, trauma and bereavement department of Chai Lifeline International, will be here along with co-facilitator Zahava Farbman.
“They reached out to us. I am very grateful that they are coming because they have a lot more trauma experience than anyone locally and they are specifically there to help parents, teachers and kids,” Dr. Rockoff said.
Dr. Rockoff pointed out that Project C.H.A.I. “has been involved with every major Jewish catastrophe” that has happened over the past several years. She pointed out the organization has received media attention for their work after the 2008 attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai, India; in the aftermath of the murder of Leiby Kletzky in New York, where the team led a global effort to help children manage their fear and grief; and after Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast in 2012.
The counselors from Project C.H.A.I. are expected to be at HBHA when students report back to classes today (Thursday, April 24) following their Passover break. They will be on hand all day “helping us run sessions for our kids and talk to our kids,” Dr. Rockoff said.
Dr. Fox is a forensic and clinical psychologist who has practiced in Beverly Hills for nearly 30 years. He is a graduate school professor and has been on the faculty of USC, CSPP-LA and Loma Linda University School of Medicine where he specializes in diagnostic testing, neuroscience, trauma and treatment issues. As director of the Project C.H.A.I. professional team, Dr. Fox provides supervision and consultation in responding to trauma in the Jewish world. He has contributed to the Psychology Perspectives column for Mishpacha Magazine, as well as authoring a weekly blog, A Thought on The Parsha. He serves frequently as a visiting scholar for Jewish institutions, and as a professor has lectured on three continents.
Farbman is a veteran traumatologist, having worked in this field for close to two decades. Formerly she held the position as a director of Camp Simcha, Chai Lifeline’s overnight camp for children with cancer and other medical challenges. She is currently the associate director of Project C.H.A.I., where she focuses on helping families and communities prepare for and respond to the full range of crises, traumas and tragedies. She is widely recognized as the “go to” professional in responding to crises in the Jewish community.
