As a mental health counselor in an elementary school setting, I have the opportunity to advocate for Jewish children in a public school setting where the majority of students who are religious identify as Christian. Discrimination in schools can occur in a variety of ways, including overt bullying, hate crimes, and microaggressions. In a study of the experience of religious minorities in the public school setting, the public schools had a pervasive, overt Christian culture (Dupper, Forest-Bank, & Lowry-Carusillo, 2015). This study found that the religious minority students were expected to accept Christianity as the norm, and were marginalized if they complained or chose not to participate. This is an example of discrimination that is institutionalized within the school system. This discrimination may have long-lasting detrimental effects on the mental health of children in religious minorities, especially during the formative years of early elementary school. In addition to being left out or ostracized, Jewish students in this situation are receiving the message that their religion and culture are not valued or celebrated. To advocate for these children, it could be helpful to educate teachers and administrators about how religious minority students are harmed by these experiences.
References
Dupper, D. R., Forrest-Bank, S., & Lowry-Carusillo, A. (2015). Experiences of religious minorities in public school settings: Findings from focus groups involving Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, and Unitarian Universalist youths. Children & Schools, 37(1), 37–45.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, there was a 57 percent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in 2017 (Cox & Friedman, 2018). Despite the longevity of anti-Semitism, it is very misunderstood on a global scale. Many people incorrectly believe that anti-Semitism subsided after the Holocaust (Rosenberg, 2017). Although the Holocaust was the most extreme manifestation of anti-Semitism, there are still pervasive, insidious anti-Semitic beliefs ingrained within society. For example, as a mental health counselor at an elementary school, Christianity and Christian holidays are seen as the default religious traditions. Many non-Christian children could easily explain the history of Christmas and what Christmas is about, but the same could not be said of non-Jewish children’s understanding of Jewish customs. If children were educated about all religious holidays, including Jewish traditions from an early age, this could bring other religious traditions into mainstream consciousness. I would be interested in educating teachers about the importance of representation of Jewish holidays in the classroom and helping them find books and educational resources that could teach children about Jewish culture. It would be important for teachers to read books about Jewish culture to the class to intentionally open up discussion about diversity, but also to have these materials accessible in the classroom throughout the year so that children can explore on their own. Teachers should be educated about the importance of representing all holidays equally, and actively plan to incorporate Jewish traditions if there are times when Christian holidays are being acknowledged. For example, some schools will have “winter holiday parties” that may focus on Christmas. I would like to educate the teachers about how this Christian focus affects Jewish children, and how all of the students could benefit from non-denominational winter activities rather than activities based on Christian themes such as Santa, red and green, and Christmas trees. Teachers should either incorporate Jewish traditions as well and in equal amounts, or disregard the holiday focus altogether and celebrate winter instead. Providing teachers with evidence-based research about the importance of celebrating diversity from an early age, as well as helping them find classroom resources is one way to be a servant leader for Jewish children in the elementary school setting.
References
Bullard, Lisa. (2015, January 1). My Religion, Your Religion. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cox, David, and Friedman, Molly. (2018, March 22). As hate crimes rise, young people perceive religious discrimination of Muslims and Jewish people differently. Public Religion Research Institute.
Glossop, Jennifer. (2013, March 1). The Kids Book of World Religions. Toronto, Ontario.
Rosenber, Yair. (2017, February 3). Five myths about anti-Semitism. The Washington Post.
Throughout history, Jewish people have been known for their immense fortitude and strength. This sense of community and the strength that comes from that has been essential to allow this group to withstand the anti-Semitism that they have experienced. This sense of strength and community could be increased if non-Jewish people intentionally denounced anti-Semitic beliefs, words, and actions when they are witnessed. Although anti-Semitic beliefs are certainly not new, there has been a resurgence of these attitudes in the past three years (Anti-Defamation League, 2018). Modern white supremacist ideology is based on the idea that Jewish people are controlling and manipulating other marginalized groups to “target” the White race (Jewish Funders Network, 2018). Most people would assume that white supremacy is focused on discrimination against Black people, but these extremist hate groups believe “all of the racial problems go back to the Jews”. There was a resurgence of white supremacy in 2015 when Donald Trump entered the presidential race, and white supremacists saw his victory as a victory for their movement as well (Anti-Defamation League, 2018). White supremacists portray Jews as evil and manipulative, believing that they control the internet, the media, liberalism, immigration, and multiculturalism (Siegel, 2014). The Jewish community can draw on their strength as a collective group, and Orthodox Jews can rely on their faith to get them through these tumultuous times. However, if non-Jewish people do not stand up to these hateful messages they are complicit in the anti-Semitism.
There are many examples of how anti-semitism operates on a systemic level in today’s society, in which assimilation and overt oppression join forces. An example of overt oppression is the prevalence of Christian Privilege. Christian holidays, such as Christmas and Easter are routinely celebrated in the workforce and school system, and Christians rarely have to ask for their religious holidays off. Because Christian holidays are treated as the default, Jewish people frequently have to disclose their religious identity to ask for time off to celebrate their holidays, which creates the opportunity for anti-semitic attitudes and comments from their colleagues (Garland, 2009). Furthermore, many Jewish people may have subconsciously internalized these anti-semitic beliefs, which may be in part due to the systemic assimilation of Jewish people into mainstream culture (Friedman, Freidlander, & Blustein, 2005). Many people view Jewish people to be the same as White people, which essentially erases their entire cultural identity, assimilating them into a culture different than their own. This systemic assimilation even appears in fields such as counseling, which are meant to celebrate diversity and multicultural awareness. Jewish cultural issues are frequently left out of multicultural counseling textbooks, and licensure exams have been held on Yom Kippur, the most solemn Jewish religious holiday (Sublette & Trappler, 2008). Because of the assimilation of Jewish people and White people, and because of stereotypes portraying Jewish people as being wealthy, their systemic oppression is not taken as seriously as the systemic oppression of other minorities, and they are left out of our multicultural textbooks and discussions entirely.
References
Friedman, M., Friedlander, M, & Blustein, D. L. (2005). Toward an understanding of Jewish identity: a phenomenological study. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52 (1), 77-83.
Garland, M. N. (2010). Christian privilege: Do Jewish students feel marginalized in US public schools? ProQuest Information & Learning.
Sublette, E., & Trappler, B. (2008). Cultural sensitivity training in mental health: treatment of orthodox Jewish psychiatric inpatients. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 46 (2) 122-134.
Berger, S. S. (2014). Whose trauma is it anyway? Furthering our understanding of its intergenerational transmission. Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy, 13: 169-181.
This qualitative research article suggests that family dynamics must be understood in order to understand the mechanisms of intergenerational trauma. Clinical examples are viewed using Wilfred Bion’s theory of group dynamics and looking at the family as a “work group”. The author argues that this framework may be effective in families with intergenerational trauma resulting from slavery, racism, war-related violence, and homophobic reactions. This study included some valuable information about the psychological impact of the Holocaust on the offspring of survivors. However, it was heavily focused on the framework with which we view intergenerational trauma. Further research is needed to understand how offspring of Holocaust survivors are affected by intergenerational trauma. This article was a good starting point, and provided many additional articles with more specific information, but this article on its own would be more relevant for family counselors.
Friedman, M., Friedlander, M, & Blustein, D. L. (2005). Toward an understanding of Jewish identity: a phenomenological study. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 52 (1), 77-83.
This research article provides an overview for counselors of Jewish culture and Jewish faith, something that is relatively absent from the multicultural counseling literature. In this qualitative study, 10 participants were interviewed about their personal experiences of Jewish identity. The research team coded the interviews, and located common themes including: experience of discrimination, environmentally-sensitive culture identities, sense of pride, search for meaning, importance of Jewish marriage, and a connection to Israel. Among this group of 10 participants, there were varying degrees to which religion and cultural identity were conflated. Many of the participants reported having two cultural identities, American and Jewish, and identified with whichever was more salient in the environment they were in. Additionally, while all participants were aware of discrimination against Jews, only some had experienced it, and many participants were hesitant to name their experiences as discrimination. A lot of participants reported a sense of pride but also a sense of inferiority from both Gentiles and other Jews, if they were criticized for their secular or orthodox identity. In conclusion, the identity of an American Jew is very complex. This study highlights the fact that non-Jewish counselors may think of Judaism only as a religion, and not as a cultural identity, which implies that counselors should expand their awareness of Jewish culture. This is relevant material, because it outlines many themes that Jewish people expressed about their identity. These themes would be very useful for a counselor to be aware of. However, the qualitative nature of the study and the small population make these results difficult to generalize. Further research is needed. Additionally, it would be important for the counselor to consider their geographical location, and how the experience of Jewish Americans may vary across different regions in the United States. This literature seems a little dated. It would be interesting to see how these findings may have changed within the past few years. Additionally, this study was limited to White, married participants. A larger, more heterogeneous sample is needed to increase variation.
Schlosser, L. Z., Safran, R. S., Suson, R. A., Dettle, K., & Dewey, J. H. (2013). The assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders among American Jews. Handbook of Multicultural Mental Health, 2(1), 1-20.
The purpose of this article is to provide a summary of the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders for American Jews. This position article provides a broad overview of mental health for the American Jew population, including Christian privilege and the psychological stress that results from the experience of antisemitism. According to this article, antisemitism is even present in the counseling fields, and most counseling textbooks omit Jewish issues. This article argues that counselors must be familiar with the client’s cultural perspective when it comes to the way they discuss distress and the severity of symptoms. Additionally, this article argues that clinicians should be more aware of the intergenerational trauma that may affect American Jews. This article provided a good breadth of information, but it serves as an overview instead of a thorough research study. This article would be a good beginning place for researchers, but further quantitative research is needed to fully understand the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders among this population.
Sublette, E., & Trappler, B. (2008). Cultural sensitivity training in mental health: treatment of orthodox Jewish psychiatric inpatients. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 46 (2) 122-134.
This research article describes common cultural and religious issues that arise in the psychiatric treatment of Orthodox Jewish patients, as well as the specific ways religious and cultural factors impacted presentation, therapeutic intervention, and the counseling relationship. This was a qualitative study involving 30 inpatient individuals, which used phenomenological data to examine the ways in which being an Orthodox Jew in a psychiatric patient differs from identifying with a different religion in a psychiatric hospital. This data was a little dated, and it would be more relevant if this study examined out-patient clients. However, it still provided useful information regarding mental health treatment for Orthodox Jews. According to this study, Orthodox Jews may have better treatment outcomes if there are adjustments in the treatment policy, allowing for religious rituals. It is of the utmost importance that the counselor respects any attitudes, dress codes, and sexual sensitivities that are different from the secular culture. The counselor must be aware of the client’s sense of cultural alienation and understand how this may affect transference/countertransference. Psychiatric units could have representatives for distinct cultural groups, to serve as a liaison between clinicians and clients, and as a mentor to the clients. This article outlines specific guidelines that could make other psychiatric units more culturally inclusive and more effective for Orthodox Jews.
Schnall, E., Kalkstein, S., Gottesman, A., Feinberg, K., Schaeffer, C. B., & Feinberg, S. S. (2014). Barriers to mental health care: a 25-year follow-up study of the Orthodox Jewish Community. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 42(3), 161-173.
This article reassesses the mental health needs of the Orthodox Jew community, 25 years after Feinberg and Feinberg’s (1985) study which suggested that this population was underserved in the mental health community. In this study, a questionnaire was sent to 450 participants included in the International Network of Orthodox Mental Health Professionals. These clinicians responded that their community demonstrates “much greater” or “somewhat greater” acceptance of mental illness and treatment compared with 25 years ago. This article delineates the barriers to mental health services for the Orthodox Jew community, as well as the changes in these barriers over time. The proportion of participants who believed distrust of the mental health field was a barrier to treatment has decreased, as well as the proportion who believed religion and psychology were in conflict. However, the number of participants that are still reporting these beliefs suggests that further work is needed to build connections within the Orthodox community and the mental health community. Additionally, Orthodox Jews may be more likely than members of other Jewish denominations to prefer religious counselors as opposed to mental health professionals. Although this study provided very important information about the barriers to mental health care, further research could also survey the clients within this community. Gaining the perspective of the clients within this population would enhance our understanding of the needs being met and needs that are still not met.