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Educators from across the greater Baltimore area came together to learn more about the challenges that children living with loss face in the classroom at a special Chai Lifeline symposium February 19 at Suburban Orthodox Congregation. The program is the first in a planned series of ChaiSymposium for Baltimore’s Jewish community.

“ChaiSymposium will bring dynamic experts in education and mental health to Baltimore’s Jewish community in an effort to tackle some of the emotional and social ordeals our children and their families face,” said Tzvi Haber, Chai Lifeline Mid-Atlantic’s program director. “This program was created specifically to give educators and school personnel the skills, strategies and sensitivities necessary to teach bereaved students.”

The program, entitled “The Grieving Student,” was the result of an outpouring of requests from families following several very public tragic losses in the community over the past year. “I think people have been stunned,” continued Mr. Haber. “I doubt there is a family in the community that hasn’t been touched in some way by these losses of children, teens, and young parents.”

The evening’s program reflected the widespread collaboration among community institutions. Suburban Orthodox’s rabbinic leader, Rabbi Shmuel Silber, was joined on the podium by Rabbi Nosson Muller, a school consultant for Torah UMesorah, and Rabbi Dr. Dovid Fox, director of interventions and community education of Project CHAI, Chai Lifeline’s crisis, trauma and bereavement arm.

Rabbi Silber opened the evening by noting the important role that educators play in the life of children who are mourning parents. Rabbi Muller expanded on this theme, offering a panoramic view of the Jewish calendar from the point of view of grieving children. “Every holiday is a reminder that a parent is missing,” he said. He suggested ways that educators can help, for example, dancing with grieving children on Simchas Torah. Rabbi Dr. Fox, who is a clinical psychologist and Rav in Los Angeles in addition to his position at Project CHAI, spoke of the biological changes that occur in the brain as children mourn.

This week’s ChaiSymposium is the first of a series planned for 2018. A second community-wide event is planned for May.

Approximately 500 educators attended either in person or through an online portal. “ChaiSymposium fills an important need for information and education that will help parents and community leaders cope with the long-term effects of illness, trauma, crisis, and tragedy,” stated Rabbi Simcha Scholar, executive vice president of Chai Lifeline International. “Our goal is to bring new ideas and perspectives that will make living with pediatric illness or loss easier for families and the communities in which they live.”

Chai Lifeline gives children, families, and communities the tools they need to cope with the crises and challenges of life-threatening illnesses, disabilities, and chronic disease. For more information, or if you need service, call 877-CHAI- LIFE.

(YWN World Hedaquarters- NYC)