mental health1The third cohort of Barkai rabbis began a new 8 week course this week entitled "Mental Health in the Community." They met with Professor Max Lachman a professor of Communal Mental Health at the University of Haifa who gave them a general introduction as well as Dr. Pesach Lichtenberg, a senior psychiatrist, who began giving the rabbis a general medical overview of the field. The focus of the course is rehabilitation, recovery and integration within the context of the community and the pivotal role that the rabbi can take in this regard. This new and groundbreaking course was devised especially for Barkai by the JDC- Joint Israel in partnership with the National School for Mental Health Rehabilitation Integration and Recovery, Ono Academic College in Kiryat Ono.