About 60 people have participated so far in the trauma recovery program being run by Free Spirit Experience, a nonprofit group that offers treatment programs for young Jewish adults.
As we navigate the ongoing war, a monumental wave of psychopathology is expected when it eventually subsides.
“Time perception changes as a result of exposure to trauma and, since October 7, it is being experienced not only on a personal level but also on a collective level," suggested the researchers.
This moment calls our generation to action. We’re undergoing a collective trauma that will shape our identity and will help us shape all of Israel for future generations.
Asher says that captors told her that Hamas “wants to release us but in Israel no one cares about us.”
The legacies that come down to us are a rich and complex mixture of noble values and the painful trauma residues of our fraught history.
"Second generation" trauma in Israel was evidenced by the children of Holocaust survivors and the generation after the Yom Kippur War. The fallout from October 7 may be even worse.