3 years ago

Dignitaries and Sought After Speakers ‘Show Up’ for Mental Health

Representative of The Honorable Mr. Scott Morrison Prime Minister of Australia and Former Prime Minister of Israel The Honorable Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, both joined ‘Show Up’, a worldwide virtual mental health event, to share a personal message of support in strengthening mental health in the Jewish community. The mental health event was held in honour of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s upcoming 120th birthday • Full Story, Video

Representative of The Honorable Mr. Scott Morrison Prime Minister of Australia and Former Prime Minister of Israel The Honorable Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, both joined Show Up, a worldwide virtual mental health event, to share a personal message of support in strengthening mental health in the Jewish community.

The mental health event was held in honour of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s upcoming 120th birthday. Event organiser Rabbi Chaim Levy of Sydney’s Shul felt it was fitting to bring the community together to discuss these important issues in the light of Lubavitcher Rebbes teachings.

The event featured senior Rabbi’s, speakers, medical professionals and mental health specialists from across the world. Here are a few excerpts.

Former Prime Minister Mr Benjamin Netanyahu shared, “I know the community closely, my son Avner visited your Chabad house when he was visiting Australia. What the community has been going through since the lockdowns is tough, the State of Israel is standing by you. Keep your chins up high”.

The representative of the Australian Prime Minister presented the administration’s efforts to combat the “silent plague”. Including $3 billion to strengthen mental health support and availability to all Australians regardless of their background.

Rabbi YY Jacobson shared a powerful message on raising healthy children, he elaborated on changing our paradigm by focusing on our child and their individual potential rather than focusing on them “fitting in”. As well adding to the importance of awareness of mental illness today, “In previous generations we were in a pursuit of survival, today we must understand that the situation is different..” said Rabbi Jacobson.

Rabbi Manis Friedman shared that we’ve been conditioned to be needy, we need more and more physical things all the time, but in fact we do not need anything. The only reason we need a physical object is because our creator, Hashem needs us to utilize this physical object to fulfill our mission in life. “The switch must be made” Rabbi Friedman adds.

“The blame that haunts us for not being perfect enough, or not being able to contain the loss, and that difficulty must go away, we must give the young people the tools to deal with loss in a healthy manner” Sarah Kohn , chairwoman of the Links Club and consultant and coach for loss treatment, pointed out in an insightful and sensitive discussion about loss and trauma.

“The event was positive, uplifting and full of meaningful and diverse content, there was something for everyone. The feedback has been positively overwhelming, people feel supported and understood. We hope this will be a catalyst for bigger change in mental health” says event organizer Rabbi Chaim Levy.