Passover is a time when Jews gather together at a seder and read from the Haggada the narrative of our journey with the instruction that we should feel as if we personally were freed from Egypt.
This ritual serves to integrate our past to our present and one generation to another. In my day job as a psychologist, while I was preparing for this week’s consultation on EMDR (a trauma therapy), I discovered a chapter entitled “Narrative” in Dan Siegel’s Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology that opened my eyes that the seder is an ideal ritual to heal trauma and further integrate a group.
Siegel was writing about trauma in general, not our enslavement in Egypt nor Yom haShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), but the connections are clear. By narrating our story and subjecting it to further interpretation, we change the nature of our memories on a neurochemical level from bits of sensory data to a fuller, more integrated story. ...
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Hi Laurie,
In modern Hebrew there are two words used for history--historia-- and --toldot. You can guess the origin of historia ... Read More
Sunday, 29 March 2015 12:00
This blog was meant as a primer on “How to Research Your Family Tree.” Hah! That’s not going to happen. I was going to interview my husband which turned out to be a lot more difficult than interviewing Vera or Alla. After chasing him around the house for this interview, and then finally getting him to sit down with me, I was struck by the déjà-vu of this experience. It is identical to asking Harry for a recipe. He is so inventive and spontaneous that it is nearly impossible for him to limit his recipe to a set of directions. Most of the instructions begin with “If you’re in the mood…” or “If you have this on hand…” Heaven forbid, we should ever repeat a procedure in our home twice in the same way.
So, all I can offer is a set of impressions from watching Harry over these past few... 
The Ukraine and now the murder of Boris Nemtsov? What’s happening in Russia?
Everyday we read the news from Russia, we are very relieved for Vera that she has left Russia for good and we’re certain Alisa feels vindicated in her move many times over.
For me, the murder of Nemtsov(photo on the left) brought back memories of Sergey Kirov’s (photo on the right) 1934 murder. In December 1934, Pravda (Truth) alleged it was a young man named Nikolaev who was guilty of killing Kirov and the organs of state successfully captured, tried, and convicted him. But, when Soviet archives were opened in 1994, the truth was not so clear. Nikolaev may have pulled the trigger, but it seems Stalin and the NKVD (forerunner of the KGB) were behind the plot. After playing the role of chief mourner at Kirov’s funeral, Stalin initiated new laws and orders that launched the purges... 
