By COLlive reporter
OHEL social services made its newly formed Crisis Response Team available to the Crown Heights Jewish community following the stabbing of a bochur at Lubavitch Headquarters in Brooklyn, two weeks ago.
On Tuesday, December 9, Levi Rosenblatt was stabbed with a knife in the main shul. The police shot and killed the African American attacker who reportedly said “Kill the Jews!”
OHEL, the children’s home and family services which caters to the Orthodox Jewish population, said it received several inquiries from parents concerned about how to talk to their children about what had happened.
In response, OHEL’s Crisis Response Team has reached out to Crown Heights community leaders and school personnel, offering to meet with classes, school staff, or the community at large.
The team, headed by trauma expert Dr. Norman Blumenthal, leverages a specialized team of trauma experts to meet the immediate needs of affected individuals, families, and communities.
It includes psychologists, social workers, mental health counselors, art therapists, and other trained clinicians experienced in providing crisis counseling, and who are on call at a moment’s notice to mobilize in response to an emergency.
“Thank you so much for meeting with my daughter,” a mother told after Dr. Blumenthal consoled her daughter, who had witnessed a tragedy. “She felt so understood and validated. I have no words.”
OHEL’s Crisis Response Team is also available to perform psychologically informed and culturally sensitive death or accident notification; untimely bereavement intervention; and lend needed support in the event of wide scale tragedy such as terrorism or natural disaster.
Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian are among the languages spoken by the multicultural team. OHEL is thus able to both comfort and support victims of trauma while better preparing individuals, institutions, and communities in dealing with tragedy.
VIDEO: Talking to Children After a Tragedy
To learn more, visit ohelfamily.org/crisisresponse
So what? Do you think a child gets that? Or an adult at first? Mentally ill people don’t have a scarlet letter on their foreheads to alert the public that this person is not rersponsible for his actions. This was a terrifying act & that it happened in 770, something that was formerly unthinkable, makes it worse. And he was shot dead in 770 – that is really frightening. Do you think the people who experienced 9-11 weren’t affected? I can tell you that they were, from my own experience being married to someone who was there. So yes, these… Read more »
So let them speak in the schools
The deceased was a schizophrenic off his medications, such people can say anything.. the anti Jewish slur could have been an anti Chinese slur.
Thank G-d bochur is back well and happy.