Attend one of our interactive events, or create an educational experience personalized to the needs of your community with our step-by-step guides to hosting a mental health Shabbat dinner and/or a #QuietingTheSilence program.
Mental health affects each of us, and spreading awareness starts with a conversation. We appreciate your willingness to have that important conversation. We hope it will be meaningful for you and will spark positive change toward #QuietingTheSilence around mental illness.
These conversation guides have been created for their unique connection to mental health and are a way to begin conversations around this challenging topic. You will be amazed by what you hear and the ideas that come out of the conversation.
We created #QuietingTheSilence as a platform to help individuals and organizations create programs and events focusing on mental health and substance use. Our goal is to offer members of the community a chance to come together to share their own experiences in this arena.
Hearing personal stories of struggles and loss directly from those living through them makes a stronger impact and helps foster new perspectives, personal connections, ideas, and hope. The stories come from individuals with a Jewish background who have gone through a life-changing experience, either personally or through a loved one. We hope by sharing them, we can show others with similar stories they are not alone. And we can begin to eliminate the shame and stigma many feel when it comes to mental illness and addiction. We know accomplishing that goal will take time. It isn’t easy to speak out publicly. At times people wish to remain anonymous. Ideally, everyone would be comfortable sharing his or her name, but not everybody is ready. That’s OK. Telling their stories at all is a start, and the more we talk more about these issues, the faster we’ll get there.
This program offering includes facilitation guides and marketing materials, as well as models for other communities to follow.
Host or attend a Shabbat Dinner on any Friday night. This dinner is not a therapy session or training. Your goal for the evening is to show that Mental Health education and support is a priority in the Jewish community and that it is OK to talk about mental health. It is time to eliminate the shame and stigma that is often associated with the topic. It’s time to #QuietTheSilence.
Our materials offer meaningful interpretations of our Shabbat rituals that connect mental health to the experience, as well as new ways you can add mental health to your Shabbat table in a spiritually meaningful way.
Talk to Our Program Coordinator
Let us know if you have any questions about our programs!
"*" indicates required fields