Ensuring There’s Help for the Helpers in Israel

In the weeks following the ceasefire, Project Kesher Israel (PKI) has prioritized emotional recovery for its regional coordinators and group leaders. These frontline staff members have carried the weight of helping others through displacement and loss, often while processing their own trauma. To help them cope on a personal and professional level, PKI organized group meetings led by clinical psychologist Ella Berchansky, clinical social worker Anna Talisman and trauma specialist Yulia Tulofsky. These sessions provided training to recognize signs of PTSD and acute stress while also offering emotional care and strategies for building safe, hopeful programming moving forward.

At the same time, these same PKI leaders have held in-person gatherings with their participants, many of whom had spent weeks sheltering in place. These meetings, described by attendees as “lifesaving,” became spaces for reconnection and collective healing. Participants cried, hugged and shared their experiences, with some comparing them to COVID-era isolation combined with the additional threat of war. Some showed signs of emotional instability and were quickly referred for additional support, illustrating the enormous toll the attacks have had on the entire PKI community.