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Resource Library

Explore the connections between Judaism and mental health with our educational resources! Below you will find articles, downloadable activity sheets, videos and podcasts, and more about Jewish holidays and concepts, and the ways Judaism addresses mental illness. (Library disclaimer)

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October 7th – The Jewish Collective Trauma Response

By Talya Gordon | I don’t have the answers for how or even if we will be okay. Right now, all we can do is sit with the pain and be honest about how we are doing. We are not okay. We need the world to do more. We need to mourn and cry and take care of ourselves. We need support from non-Jews, so we know people outside of our community care about our safety.
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The Mental Health Hanukkah Journal | 2023

Hanukkah can also remind us we, like the rest of the world, need to remember the great miracles we are and have light shed on the innermost parts of ourselves that need attention and understanding. In this book we have devoted space to eight essential reflection prompts we hope will help you reflect on your year — on what brought you light and what dimmed your light — as we add more light to our menorahs this season. We will intersperse these prompts with our mental health Hanukkah resources.
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Pirsumei Nisah – Illuminating Your Inner Self (An Eight Day Hanukkah Journal)

Hanukkah can remind us we, like the rest of the world, need to remember the great miracles we are and have some light shed on the innermost parts of ourselves that need attention and understanding. We have devoted space to eight essential reflection prompts we hope will help you reflect on your year — on what brought you light and what dimmed your light — as we add more light to our menorahs this season.
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The JED Foundation: Protecting Student Mental Health in the Face of Antisemitism and Islamophobia

On college campuses, which are homes for student activism and academic debate, students are describing hostile environments, hate speech, and incidents of violence based on perceived or actual religious affiliation or nationality. These attacks threaten their sense of safety and well-being. To protect the mental health of all students, The Jed Foundation (JED) suggests colleges and universities take the following actions to engage students and support their mental health during this time and beyond.
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Packing Your Antisemitism Toolkit A Webinar for Jewish Educators

The Jewish people are at an inflection point, where the reality of antisemitism has become increasingly relevant to us and to our learners. As educators, we need to make sure that our anti-antisemitism toolkits are full with knowledge, questions, answers, and best practices so we can set ourselves up for success in empowering our learners and their families at this moment and beyond. Educators will come away with talking points for asking and answering big questions about antisemitism, actions you can take to kickstart critical conversations with your learners, and ideas about how to empower your teens if/when they encounter antisemitism at this stage of their Jewish journeys. Watch Dr. Samantha Vinokor-Meinrath and Amanda Berman in an interactive conversation about antisemitism, Jewish teens, and this unique moment.
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An Exploration of the Mi Sheberach

By Miriam A.G. Baumgartner | Many of us think of a mi shebeirach as a prayer for healing. But one can say a mi shebeirach for other reasons as well. Simply put, a mi shebeirach is a Jewish prayer used to request a blessing from God. Its format — invoking God in the name of the patriarchs and matriarchs and then making a case that a specific person or group should be blessed — dates to the 10th or 11th century CE in Babylonia. At that time, it was used to bless the congregation or the people gathered for prayer.
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Guidance for Talking to Our Kids

By Betsy Stone, Ph.D. | We urgently need to support parents, teachers and other communal professionals who work directly with children with resources for speaking with young people about what is going on as the present conflict continues to evolve.
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Wellness Resources for the Situation in Israel

“Kol Yisrael arevim zeh la zeh – All Jews are responsible for one another” is a Talmudic phrase most often used as a call to action. A symbol of the responsibility we should feel for the well-being of others. It is also a sign of unity and strength, and it reminds us that we are never truly alone in our struggles.
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Accordion Content

The Blue Dove Foundation resource library is constantly growing as we create and collect meaningful content to share. As you are engaging with our resource library, please let us know if you see anything that is out of date or that needs to be updated, whether it regards mental health information or Jewish content. 

Blue Dove both serves and works with members of all kinds of Jewish communities, from the ultra-Orthodox to the unaffiliated. To be as inclusive as possible and respectful of different communities and traditions, we have decided to spell God as such — with no hyphen in place of the “o.” And much like we avoid using “him” or “her” to describe a person (opting for “them” instead), we agreed to treat God as a gender-neutral term. When quoting a resource or text directly, however, we keep the original terms used by the author.

We hope our resources can be used in a variety of settings with different audiences. We invite you to adapt resources in whichever way meets the needs of the group you are working with. To explore how to adapt our resources, please view our webinar with the Jewish Education Project, where we explore adapting our resources: Through the Portal: Exploring the Connections between Judaism and Mental Health with the Blue Dove Foundation.

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