Introduction: The October 7 massacre, including a mass kidnapping for the first time in Israeli history, created deep circles of trauma, bereavement, and loss that undermine basic assumptions about security and trust in world order. The struggle that has accompanied Israeli society since then is a journey in which deep pain, heartbreak, and anxiety are woven alongside social mobilization, coping, and mental strength.   

The trauma of kidnapping, as it has taken shape since the events of October 7, 2023, crosses many circles of harm and impact: from the survivors of captivity themselves, the families of the kidnapped – the living and the dead – in their various circles, through the affected communities, caretakers, and volunteers, to Israeli society as a whole.

This is a continuing and multifaceted trauma, which has caused multi-systemic damage in diverse areas of life – mental and physical health, family relationships, occupational functioning, pedagogical-educational functioning, as well as economic, legal aspects, and more. All of these have a lasting impact on the Israeli consciousness, ethos, world of values, myths, images, and collective language. This reality, with its many vulnerabilities, has posed and continues to pose a need for the development and adaptation of unique therapeutic, community, and institutional responses.

The current book seeks to address the multifaceted effects of the trauma of kidnapping in its broad circles and the many challenges it poses. Its goal is to bring to light the knowledge and experience that has accumulated in Israel in its wake and the broad mobilization that has been created in its wake. We hope to create an integrative conceptualization and connect the clinical, theoretical, and social while addressing the individual, family, community, and societal levels. This is in an effort to offer an organizing framework and resources that will support ongoing coping. 

We invite women and professionals from various fields and disciplines, who have taken part in accompaniment, treatment, research and action in the field of kidnapping trauma and its consequences, to submit proposals for chapters on a variety of aspects related to coping with kidnapping trauma and its consequences. 

In order to advance the writing process, we have organized the themes that we would like to encompass into four chapters, while mapping issues in each of them. The proposed topics are tentative and initial - the titles and topics of the chapters will be designed by the writers. 

Below is an initial proposal for chapters and topics:

First Chapter: Dialogue with the Knowledge Base for Conceptualizing and Coping with Kidnapping Trauma: 

1. History and research to date: The knowledge base on situations of disappearance and kidnapping in Israel and collective kidnapping events around the world up to October 7, and their impact on ways of coping and thinking since then. 

2. Trauma scripts: the trauma of kidnapping, cultural historical scripts, symbols and presence, location in the collective consciousness - interrelationships between trauma, collective consciousness and the public dimension.

3. Theoretical frameworks and concepts in dealing with the trauma of kidnapping. 

Second Chapter: The Journey of the Kidnapped: 

1. Coping with Captivity: Knowledge about the psychological processes of coping with captivity and kidnapping, including insights into the mental processes in captivity and the resources that helped in coping with helplessness, horror, and suffering throughout the timeline.  

2. Kidnapping in relation to age and gender groups: A reference to the processes of coping with captivity through different age and gender groups - children, youth, young people and adults - women and men.  

3. Abductee reception processes: protocols, institutional preparation, team preparation. 

4. Therapeutic work with captivity survivors: A description of a variety of models and approaches to mental health and rehabilitation in working with captivity survivors.  

Third Gate: The Journey of Families

1. Families of the kidnapped: Concepts and processes of treatment and support in individual, couple and family aspects.

2. Families of the Fallen: Coping with Disturbed and Traumatic Bereavement. 

3. Families of the Fallen: Support and Insights from Group Processing. 

4. Families of returnees: coping and processes with returning home.

5. Second and third circles: Coping with family and friends in the second and third circles.

Fourth Gate: The Journey of Communities Affected by Kidnapping: 

1. Coping processes of communities affected by kidnapping and multiple losses: between memory and struggle and renewal and construction. 

2. Community intervention models.

Fifth Gate: The professional and social journey. 

1. Kidnapping trauma and the collective consciousness: between the personal wound and the collective wound, while reshaping collective commitment and morality and its characteristics. 

2. Trauma, art and creation: Creation and artistic activity in the service of dealing with the trauma of kidnapping in the public space.

3. Institutional mobilization: The trauma of kidnapping and the journey of public institutions and services.

4. The media, its role and effects: media exposure and its effects in a variety of situations and stages related to abduction and repatriation. 

5. The story of the caregivers and volunteers. 

Sixth Gate: A Look into the Future

1. Looking to the Future - Insights from Existing Knowledge Regarding Principles and Policies for the Long-Term Rehabilitation of Survivors of Captivity and Families of the Fallen and Returned Abductees.  

2. Long-term effects of the trauma of kidnapping on Israeli society.

Intentions and indications:

1. Chapter length: up to 4800 words including bibliography.

2. Submitting a Proposal: The proposal will include a summary that addresses the content, ideas, and concepts that the chapter will cover, while referring as much as possible to the tentative structure of the chapter. The length of the proposal is up to 350 words. Proposals can be submitted at the link attached below until 10.6.2026. The proposals will be reviewed by the editors and responses will be provided by 1.7.2026.

3. Draft Submission: A first draft of the chapter must be submitted by October 21, 2026. The submitted draft will be judged by reviewers for a final check of its suitability for the book. The chapters that are finally approved will undergo an editing process with the book's editors and a professional editor, in close collaboration with the authors.  

4. We are working to publish the book in English as well. If a contract is signed to publish the book in English, the authors will be asked to translate the chapter they wrote into English themselves, and it will undergo scientific and linguistic editing in English as well, in order to publish the book in English as well.
    

For questions and additional information, please contact:

Dr. Einat Yehene einat.yehene@gmail.com
Dr. Dana Mor dana9mor@gmail.com
Noa Gilad, Safe Harbor Coordinator safeharbor.missing@gmail.com