Abstract: No published research to date has investigated the mental health experiences of Orthodox Jewish adolescents in the UK, although anecdotally, the Jewish mental health community is aware of the prevalence of mental health difficulties amongst young people. This lack of research highlights a serious gap in how to best support this population in the community and in mainstream services. As a first step into this field of study, this research explored the experiences of seven London-based Orthodox Jewish female therapists offering talking therapy to strictly Orthodox Jewish (Chareidi) female adolescents in the private sector, using semi-structured interviews. An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the interview data identified several themes: The therapists navigated personal and professional overlap when working within their own community, dealt with blurred boundaries, and managed the complexities of confidentiality within a close-knit community context. Furthermore, their therapeutic practice was culturally informed, and they applied cultural sensitivity with their clients. The therapists talked about how they helped Chareidi Gen Z on their journey to adulthood and how they experienced both feeling connected to their clients, and feeling disconnected when values were at odds with each other. The implications from this study included the need to engage Orthodox Jewish adolescents in future research so that their voices can be captured, the importance of continuing to increase culturally sensitive mental health promotion, education, and provision within the Chareidi community, and for mainstream services to facilitate access for the Chareidi community by prioritising culturally informed practices and community partnership work.
Abstract: Erinnern oder Vergessen? Auch Jahrzehnte nach der Shoah sind die Erfahrungen, die Bilder und die Leiden, die sich mit der Erinnerung an die nationalsozialistischen Verbrechen aufdrängen, keineswegs Geschichte geworden. Die Formen und Praktiken des Gedenkens in Deutschland haben sich mit dem Abstand zum historischen Geschehen verändert und lassen einen Übergang vom sozialen Gedächtnis zu einem kulturellen Gedenken erkennen. Gleichwohl unterscheiden sich die Formen deutscher Gedenkkultur von der jüdischen Erinnerungspraxis. Die vielfältigen traumatischen Erlebnisse der jüdischen Überlebenden der Shoah bestimmen deren Lebenswelt, haben Auswirkungen auf ihre jeweiligen Identitätskonzepte und Handlungsmuster und übertragen sich auf die nachfolgenden Generationen.
Die hier versammelten Beiträge geben unter anderem Einblicke in den wissenschaftlichen Diskurs über die Konsequenzen des individuellen und gesellschaftlichen Verarbeitens der Erinnerungen an den Nationalsozialismus und die Shoah sowie der daraus resultierenden Traumata; thematisieren den professionellen Umgang mit Überlebenden mit Blick auf deren Selbstkonzepte und ihre jeweiligen biografischen Narrative; fragen nach der Praxisrelevanz des Wissens um Prozesse des Erinnerns und Vergessens in der Betreuung von Überlebenden und deren Angehörigen; weisen auf den Zusammenhang zwischen den erlittenen Traumata, den Lebensumständen nach der Befreiung und den jeweiligen biografischen Erzählungen hin; schließlich verdeutlichen sie, was das gesellschaftlich bedingte kollektive Vergessen oder die Umdeutung der Geschichte für die Überlebenden und ihre Familien bedeutet.
Mit Beiträgen von: Katja von Auer ǀ Julia Bernstein ǀ Jackie Feldman ǀ Kurt Grünberg ǀ Tilmann Habermas ǀ Jens Hoppe ǀ Ulrike Jureit ǀ Doron Kiesel ǀ Salomon Korn ǀ Norma Musih ǀ Miriam Victory Spiegel ǀ Noemi Staszewski ǀ Gabriel Strenger ǀ Moshe Teller ǀ Ricarda Theiss ǀ Susanne Urban ǀ Lukas Welz ǀ Lea Wohl von Haselberg
Inhalt
Kurt Grünberg: Danach – Vergessen, Erinnern, Tradieren. Extremes Trauma und Kultur im postnationalsozialistischen Deutschland
Tilmann Habermas: Die Veränderung von Lebensgeschichten im Laufe des Lebens
Jackie Feldman/Norma Musih: Kollektive Erinnerung, digitale Medien und Holocaust-
Zeugenschaft
Jens Hoppe: Erinnern und Vergessen bei Überlebenden der Shoah. Anmerkungen
eines Historikers zu „Holocaust Oral Histories“
Salomon Korn: Kultur der Erinnerung
Gabriel Strenger: Erinnerung und Vergessen im biblischen Kontext
Susanne Urban: Fließende Erinnerungen. Reflexionen über die Befassung mit Zeitzeugen
Miriam Victory Spiegel: Nicht geheilte Wunden: Die Rolle von Erinnerung und Denkmälern
Julia Bernstein/Katja von Auer „Sie reagieren nur so, weil Sie jüdisch sind“. Diskursive Auseinandersetzungen mit den Auswirkungen der Shoah im Bildungskontext der Sozialen Arbeit
Moshe Teller: Papa, mir geht’s heute nicht besonders gut … Holocaust-Überlebende
und ihre Kinder: eine klinische Perspektive
Noemi Staszewski/Ricarda Theiss: Zeitzeugentheater. Potenziale transgenerationaler Projekte
Lukas Welz: Erinnern und Vergessen verantworten. Über die Notwendigkeit einer emanzipierten Erinnerung an die Shoah für die Betroffenen und die Gesellschaft
Lea Wohl von Haselberg: Zwischen Erinnern und Vergessen – Notizen zu Shoah und Film
Ulrike Jureit: Einsichten und Erkenntnisse
Abstract: 2015 was the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War Two, and, for Jews, the seventieth anniversary of the end of the worst Jewish catastrophe in diaspora history. After Genocide considers how, more than two generations since the war, the events of the Holocaust continue to haunt Jewish people and the worldwide Jewish population, even where there was no immediate family connection. Drawing from interviews with "ordinary" Jews from across the age spectrum, After Genocide focuses on the complex psychological legacy of the Holocaust. Is it, as many think, a "collective trauma"? How is a community detached in space and time traumatised by an event which neither they nor their immediate ancestors experienced? "Ordinary" Jews' own words bring to life a narrative which looks at how commonly-recognised attributes of trauma - loss, anger, fear, guilt, shame - are integral to Jewish reactions to the Holocaust.
Abstract: An in‐depth qualitative interview study is reported, with respondents (N = 52; all female) from the following urban‐dwelling religious groups: White Christian, Pakistani Muslim, Indian Hindu, Orthodox Jewish and Afro‐Caribbean Christian. Qualitative thematic analysis of open‐ended interview responses revealed that the degree to which religious coping strategies were perceived to be effective in the face of depressive and schizophrenic symptoms, varied across the groups, with prayer being perceived as particularly effective among Afro‐Caribbean Christian and Pakistani Muslim groups. Across all non‐white groups, and also for the Jewish group, there was fear of being misunderstood by outgroup health professionals, and among Afro‐Caribbean Christian and Pakistani Muslim participants, evidence of a community stigma associated with mental illness, leading to a preference for private coping strategies. The results lend further support to recent calls for ethnic‐specific mental health service provision and highlight the utility of qualitative methodology for exploring the link between religion and lay beliefs about mental illness.
Abstract: Much research recognises the clinical value of considering clients' cultural context. 'Cultural competence' may be considered the balance between sensitive practice and an awareness about particular cultural groups. 'Jewishness' is a powerful influence on the majority of Jewish people, regardless of religiosity. Jewishness incorporates more than Judaism, for example, it includes Jewish history, ethnicity and culture. This research aims to help therapists work with Jewish families by familiarising them with aspects of Jewishness, in order to gain insight to the 'lived experience' of contemporary, British, Jewish families, so as to consider the potential clinical implications of Jewishness and develop cultural competence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight British-born, culturally, rather than religiously, Jewish mothers aged between 30 and 39. The interview transcripts were analysed using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology. Ten themes (^entity', Tradition and Culture', 'Characteristics', 'Family', 'Community', 'Continuity', 'Difference and Similarity', 'Fear', 'Feelings' and 'Services') were derived from the analysis and considered in terms of clinical implications. For example, the women spoke about a (sometimes) inexplicable 'bicultural' identity and the significant impact of Jewish history. These issues may inhibit Jewish clients from speaking about the relevance of their Jewishness with non-Jewish therapists. Suggestions were made for developing a Jewish cultural, historical and political perspective, so that beliefs, behaviours and characteristics are not misinterpreted and 'therapeutic safety' for Jewish clients is maximised. Other recommendations included using cultural consultants and adopting a systemic framework. Issues that may be particularly difficult for Jewish families were discussed and recommendations for future research made.
Abstract: This is a psychosocial research project investigating ‘national identity’ amongst middle class Jewish-Israelis in Britain. Its aim is to map key contents and highlight social categories that subjects draw on in their construction of ‘national identity’ and to study how they negotiate these categories and contents when narrating a story of ‘who they are’ as Israelis in Britain.
The first part of the thesis provides historical and theoretical background to the study of national identities, with a focus on Jewish-Israeli identity in the context of Zionism. An empirical study is then presented, in which twelve Israelis living in London were interviewed in depth about their views on Israeli national identity, what it meant personally to them to be ‘an Israeli’, and what it meant to be ‘an Israeli in London’. Interviews were transcribed and a critical narrative approach was used to analyze the resulting texts, taking account of reflexive interview processes as well as exploring links with the broader cultural and political context.
The findings reveal the elasticity and fluidity of ‘Israeli identity’. Subjects drew on a shared cultural reservoir - Zionist images, preconceptions and signifiers - to describe their personalized experience of belonging to or alienation from an acceptable notion of ‘Israeliness’ while living abroad.
‘Israeli identity’ was constructed against stereotypical images of ‘the others’ which, at times, applied racist discourse. Subjects constructed ‘Israeliness’ differently depending on the context they referred to (e.g. Israeli or British society). Each context had its distinct ‘others’. Within the British context Israeliness was constructed against the images of ‘the local Jews’, the ‘English’ and the ‘local Arabs and Muslims’.
Constructing an Israeli identity was also influenced by the social position that subjects were implicated in, in relation to their class, ethnicity, gender, or occupation. This also shaped their experience of dislocation in Britain.
Most of the participants conformed with a mainstream perspective on Israeli nationalism and refrained from criticizing it. This was interpreted as a discourse reflecting their privileged socio-cultural position in Israel and their commitment to a Zionist ethos which condemns emigration. Such a portrayal of Israeliness both initiated and contributed to a sense of unsettledness characteristic of this middle-class group. Subjects moved back and forth between two identificatory positions (‘Ha’aretz’ and ‘Israel’) as their points of identification constantly changed. The research contributes to the analysis of nationalism phenomena and associated concepts such as diaspora and belonging among a middle class group of migrants. It outlines cultural, material and political forces that sustain nationalism yet also demonstrates ways through which subjects negotiate or resist the discourses and social categories offered to them for the construction of a ‘national identity’.
