Recent study indicates that 84% of Israeli children suffer from emotional
distress since the October 7 attacks
Israeli children suffering from emotional distress following Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attacks are receiving help from an unlikely place: Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services, a Jewish organization based in Brooklyn, that since 1969 has provided American children with mental-health support.
The organization in recent weeks translated to Hebrew, printed and distributed in Israel two of its successful workbooks for children about emotional resilience, a resource that already has helped thousands of children in the New York area by generating emotional openness and discourse.
The organization’s efforts on behalf of Israeli children developed after a study conducted by the Israeli Pediatric Association found that 84 percent of Israeli children suffer from emotional distress due to the October 7 attacks. The study concluded that 93 percent of children directly affected by the October 7 Hamas attacks and the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip are having emotional difficulties, with 69 percent of them suffering from anxiety. Ninety percent of children living in areas where many incoming-missile sirens sounded are having emotional difficulties.
Israel had not provided an adequate response to this critical mental-health need, and the country has a significant shortage of mental-health providers for children. The workbooks thus constitute a therapeutic tool for children given too few mental health professionals to handle this increased need.
The workbooks’ authors, Tzivy Reiter, LCSW, the organization’s director of children’s and national trauma services, and Dr. Naomi Baum, PhD of Israel, called the books a unique way to help Israeli children without the direct involvement of mental health professionals. Teachers and parents can guide the children in reading and discussing the book.
“The workbooks enable children to talk about their feelings and create an appropriate starting point for the teachers to start a conversation with the children about the current situation,” Reiter explained. “For many of the teaching staff without training in mental-health provision, and for the children themselves, it’s difficult to discuss the current, complex situation together. The workbooks make it much easier to start a conversation.”
Ohel translated the workbooks into Hebrew (versions for ultra-Orthodox and secular audiences) and printed tens of thousands of copies at Be’eri Press, the printing company of Kibbutz Be’eri, a community that suffered the devastating loss of many of its members due to the attack. (The workbooks are also available in Spanish, Arabic, and Ukrainian.)
The books are Inner Space: My Resilience Workbook (for elementary school ages) and I Feel That Way and That’s Okay! (for preschool children).
Inner Space: My Resilience Workbook helps children to identify their strengths and enhances their ability to understand and regulate their emotions by developing coping tools. A companion Teacher’s Guide contains many supplementary activities for the classroom to integrate skills and concepts from the workbook into practice.
I Feel That Way and That’s Okay! helps children to understand how their bodies experience their emotions. It is an innovative resource that touches on the four cornerstones of healthy development in young children: emotion regulation and coregulation, attachment, communication, and interception. The book helps children to identify and learn to manage their emotions with the help of adults in their lives, laying a strong foundation for building resilience from a very young age.
“We want to teach our children to recognize their feelings and to embrace them,” said Reiter. “This creates a foundation for understanding and compassion that will last a lifetime. It teaches kids practical tools to identify and manage emotions.”
David Mandel, the chief executive officer of Ohel, said that the workbooks, while a tremendously helpful start, are not replacements for care provided by mental-health professionals.
Educators have lauded the workbooks, with Israeli teachers saying that the country had lacked a tool of this kind to prompt children to discuss their emotions with teachers and parents.
