“The world is becoming more complicated every day,” says OHEL’s Dr. Norman Blumenthal, OHEL’s Zachter Family Chair in trauma and crisis counseling and director of OHEL Miriam Center. “With today’s political and technological landscape, our children are facing challenges and circumstances we could not have even conceived 10 years ago—and we believe that participants to this Shabbaton will gain a much better understanding of what it means to run a family in 2016.”

The Shabbaton, which takes place this Shabbos, January 15 and 16 at Congregation Ahavath Torah, includes a number of opportunities to hear insights from renowned speaker and scholar-in-residence Dr. Norman Blumenthal. The Shabbaton also includes guest chazan Shloime Dachs, and Motzaei Shabbos there will be a special screening of the groundbreaking OHEL film “Rising from Divorce,” which is for all members of the community and where Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, rav of Ahavath Torah, will provide introductory remarks. The film, which has had multiple screenings and drawn thousands across the country, aims to better educate the community about the impact of divorce, and the specific roles that the wider community, rabbanim, community leaders and educators can play to help ensure that both parents of divorce and children of divorce can thrive. There will also be a melave malka with Benjy Gottesman on guitar and Stephanie Kurtzman Barat on violin.

The detailed program with Dr. Norman Blumenthal includes a Friday night oneg at the home of Alyson and Tzvi Small, which will address “You Never Stop Being a Parent—Relationships Between Grown-Up Children and Their Parents,” a Shabbos morning drasha on the topic of “Technology and the New Culture of Childhood,” and a Seudah Shlishit lecture on “Adults and Children—Lessons from the San Bernardino and Paris Terrorist Attacks.”

Please join Ahavath Torah and OHEL for what promises to be an inspiring and memorable Shabbos. For more information please contact Rabbi Jeremy Donath, OHEL’s Bergen County community coordinator, at [email protected].

Since 1969, OHEL Children’s Home and Family Services has served as a dependable haven of individual and family support, helping people of all ages effectively manage disability, surmount everyday challenges, heal from trauma, and manage with strength and dignity during times of crisis.