WHO WE ARE

Losing a child affects every member in a bereaved family. How to deal with and live with this loss is one of the greatest challenges a mother, father, sister, brother or grandparent can deal with. Often the stricken family will look for help and answers to their need within the Jewish community, its practices, traditions, attitudes and customs.

To meet a growing need for bereaved support in the Jewish community , the Bereaved Jewish Families of Ontario was formed and its first meeting was held on September 5, 1989, at the Jewish Communal Services Centre (Lipa Green Building). The guiding forces behind the formation of this self-help group included eight newly bereaved parents, as well as the community Jewish Chaplain, a psychiatrist who specializes in bereavement, a psychiatric nurse and a social worker at Jewish Family and Child Service. This agency provided the support and direction to launch the organization.

Underlying the formation of this group was the belief that early preventative intervention and support can facilitate healing, and the support that can arise among the group can alleviate the aloneness that bereaved parents often experience after the loss of a child.

Group members help each other and often learn to educate others in the language of grief. Bereaved Jewish Families has helped numerous families since that September evening in 1989. Based on the model used in Bereaved Families of Ontario, of the bereaved helping the bereaved, groups meet several times a year, facilitated by two bereaved parents, and guided by a professional advisor (usually bereaved as well.) One of our primary goals is to let the grieving persons in the community know that they are not alone, there are others who are going through the same thing who are there to support and guide them.

In addition, Bereaved Jewish Families has assisted and helped finance and initiate various programs in the bereaved Jewish community, with guidance of a Steering Committee headed by Paul Goldstein and Executive Director Sheila Browne.

Front Row - left to right - Hilary Prusznowski, Cheryl Levitt, Sheila Browne, Debby Salsberg, Shirley Midanik, Sharon Wineberg     Back Row - left to right - Jack Noble, Ned Levitt, Paul Goldstein, Anne Isenberg, Harold Wargon, Beth Feffer, Sharon Lokash