Amazing Women: Some Light in the Darkness

AMAZING WOMEN

Rabbi Suzanne Singer

The news out of Israel for the past two years has been fairly grim. The massacre on October 7^th and its aftermath; the plight of the hostages; the incredible trauma experienced by everyone in Israel; the terrible suffering in Gaza. So, having just returned from a three-week trip to Israel, I wanted to highlight some remarkable work being done by several amazing women who have transformed their own grief into healing for themselves and others.

For over a year, I have been working on a project called “Healing Together” with Cantor Steven Puzarne who has lived in Israel for six years. Our goal is to expand the quantity and quality of therapists able to treat trauma with Animal Assisted Psychotherapy (AAP). We have partnered with several sanctuaries that are doing just that. Each one was founded and is run by an extraordinary woman.

Keren-Or Solomon’s sister was murdered at the Nova Festival. She said she could not leave her house for five months after that. However, she pulled herself together and transformed her animal sanctuary into a therapeutic center that serves not only Nova survivors and others suffering from trauma and PTSD, but their families as well, and even their therapists. Keren Or Farm – Animal Sanctuary and Mutual Therapy Center, located in Beit Berl, is based on the Mutual Rehabilitation Approach whereby the animal’s and the human being’s welfare are of equal importance. This approach is practiced by all the farms we partner with. Dr. Shiri Raz, a trauma expert, is the Director of the Trauma Therapy Center at Keren-Or Farm where she develops innovative approaches integrating relational psychoanalysis with animal presence in trauma treatment.

Sivan Shefer lives on Moshav Ein HaBesor, just a few miles from the Gaza Strip. The moshav was able to repel the terrorists on October 7th, but many of Sivan’s friends were murdered in surrounding communities across the region. Her nephew narrowly escaped from the Nova Music Festival slaughter but was murdered by terrorists on his way home to his moshav. Together with others, Sivan is building דיאלוג לחיים – Dialog for Life, a healing space for people and an animal rescue sanctuary on her moshav to help the community rebuild psychologically and emotionally,.

An isolated rescue farm in the Negev desert, the Nitzana Educational Agricultural Farm was established to support educational and therapeutic activities for its students who come from a variety of backgrounds. Yam Shlomo is Director of Shelter for Farm Animals. One of her goals is to shift the way the young Bedouin boys in the community’s boarding school relate to animals – and thus to other people. For example, a donkey walked through a session she was conducting, interrupting her. One of the boys started beating the donkey. Thanks to the careful work she has done with him and others, within a couple of years, the boy would come in asking to brush the donkey.

Finally, two of Dr. Noam Rudich’s cousins were held captive in Gaza, one for 491 days. Noam’s sanctuary, Paamoney Ruach (“Wind Chimes”), founded in 2016, is a psychotherapy center that incorporates animals to support children, especially those affected by sexual abuse, as well as youth and adults coping with trauma and at-risk situations. Paamoney Ruach also serves as an animal shelter for animals that have experienced trauma themselves, creating a mutually therapeutic environment for both the patients and the animals. Noam says that, as soon as the Gaza Strip opens up to Israelis, she will be there to help those impacted by the war.

These women inspire me every day as I do the little I can to ease the suffering of this world. Let us not give in to despair but, rather, let us follow the example if Keren-Or, Shira Raz, Sivan Shefer, and Noam Rudich.

If you would like to help their farms, you can donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/healing-trauma-with-animal-therapy