It was labeled “YU’s Biggest Event of the Year.” But even bigger were the stories it told.
On March 24, hundreds of students filled Yeshiva University’s Lamport Auditorium in Washington Heights for “Stomp Out the Stigma 2025.” The event, headlined “Changing the Conversation About Mental Health,” introduced to the stage three students who bravely told the story of “their own journeys and struggles with mental health,” Avraham Frohlich, co-president of the university’s Active Minds club, told the Jewish Link. Active Minds is an organization that promotes mental health and well-being on campus,” Frohlich explained.
The event was organized by the club, The YU Counseling Center and the Office of Student Life, according to Frohlich and a pamphlet provided at the event. Mostly, though, “It’s really a student-run, student-led event,” Frohlich said, citing Nachshoni Rothenberg—the club’s other co-presidents are Rothenberg and Maia Purow.
Frohlich introduced YU President Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman. Rabbi Berman talked of “embracing the dignity of every human being” and “the power of listening,” “not just with our ears but with our hearts.” “I think that’s really powerful [that Rabbi Berman spoke and] really gives credence to the event and shows how much he cares,” Frohlich pointed out. “Even with his busy schedule, to come to a student-run event like this is really remarkable and just shows the importance that he places, that the university places, on mental health.”
One reason Frohlich mentioned in explaining why Stomp Out the Stigma is important is that “if you’re somebody that is struggling or has been struggling with mental illness, it often can be a very lonely experience, and seeing people get up there and tell their own mental health stories can, in some ways, be very freeing and very revelatory.”
Purow was the final speaker before the three students, introducing them by announcing that “their stories are not just their stories; they are for all of us.”
The three students spoke, opening up by telling these stories of adversity that Purow referred to. “The first speaker struggled a lot with anxiety and spoke about his experience with anxiety…[and] his journey towards having to find the right psychiatrist,” Frohlich summarized. Frohlich added that the second speaker shared “about her experience with bipolar disorder and then her process of switching into YU and being able to take her classes and do the university experience in a way that allowed her to stay in a healthy place.” Meanwhile, “the third speaker also gave a very important message about depression and suicidality, and I think he also gave an important message about how he found mental health definitely impacted and sort of coincided with his religious practice in certain ways,” Frohlich said. “He found a place that fit him well in terms of his religious practice and his level of Gemara learning that allowed him to maintain a healthy lifestyle and also be a fully religious, learning guy…I think that was also a message that a lot of people needed to hear.”
The event, which Frohlich estimated drew 700-800 people, is popular because “I think people find the vulnerability and the strength and perseverance of the speakers and their stories very powerful,” and that people “want to be part of the community that is listening to these speeches, that is standing for mental health. I think that speaks to the communal nature of the event. It’s become something bigger than any individual student.”
After the three speeches, Dr. Debra Alper, assistant director of the Counseling Center, gave practical advice to students who have friends in pain. She noted that at least 30% of college students have received a mental health diagnosis, and advised friends to listen, “remain patient” and encourage others to seek out and find help. On a similar note, Rothenberg, who concluded the event, said that “When a person is struggling, we don’t avoid them for fear of an awkward interaction; we show up for them and do what we can to make them feel loved.”
After exiting the auditorium, students had the opportunity to place notes to the three students in jars, which, to Frohlich, was “ a very powerful experience, I think, for all involved.”
“We bear the burden of our fellows alongside them,” Rothenberg remarked. Let us “show up for them and do what we can to make them feel loved.”
Daniel Brauner is a contributor and former summer intern for The Jewish Link. He attends Yeshiva University and lives in Teaneck. Contact him at [email protected].
