This meeting will deal with hope, and with it, love and growth. The trauma, loss, horror and rage that have surrounded us all, as individuals and as a community, in the past two years, are searching for deep human connections, for old-new spiritual forces that seem to have disappeared and we must find them, nurture them, and perhaps even take them to new places. Thus, in the chapter that Prof. Meirav Roth wrote in the book, she emphasizes the importance of being able to remind victims of atrocities of their image as human beings and the deep love that exists in their hearts. This love, Roth argues, stands as a radical alternative to the hate crimes that attacked them.

Similarly, Prof. Yossi Levy-Blaz argues that we must locate, amidst the pain, trauma, and fear, seeds of growth, of belonging, of meaning, and of hope. In doing things for others, for the community, Prof. Levy-Blaz argues, there is enormous power to awaken these seeds and nurture them into a process of human and social growth.

All of this – love, hope, action after and growth after a crisis – is led by Dr. Liora Bar-Tor to observe the elderly in the community, those who feel, as she puts it, that "their home is no longer their fortress." The combination of the loss and separations that characterize the aging period anyway, and the terrible losses that the elderly experienced on October 7 and since (loss of loved ones, evacuation from homes, and more), can have the effect of loneliness, despair, a deep alienation from their own lives, and a loss of meaning. If we return to the words of Meirav and Yossi, the ability to turn a loving gaze towards this community, to encourage action, towards them and with them, has the power to restore hope in their hearts.

Dr. Liora Bar Tor - a specialist clinical psychologist, psychotherapy instructor and gerontologist. Wrote the chapter in the book: "My home is no longer my fortress but it will always remain my home": on aging in the shadow of massacre and war.

Prof. Yossi Levy Belz - Head of the Lior Tzafati Center for the Study of Suicidality and Mental Pain. Faculty member at the School of Therapy, Counseling and Human Development at the University of Haifa. One of the leaders of the "Homia" program, therapist, researcher, counselor and lecturer in the fields of resilience, mental pain, trauma and suicide prevention. Wrote the chapter in the book: "All the High Walls: Do We Have a Role in the Journey from Crisis to Growth Following the Events of October 7th."

Prof. Merav Roth - psychoanalyst and cultural researcher from the University of Haifa. Winner of the Sigourney International Prize in the field of psychoanalysis for groundbreaking innovations in the field of trauma and literary research; one of the leading figures in the treatment of victims of 7/10 and in charting a path for the community and the general public in the challenging times we find ourselves in; her book "Wars of Passions" was published this year by Modan Publishing. She wrote the chapter in the book: "Generator of Love."