The Oct. 7 Nova music festival in Re’im, Israel, drew more than 4,000 music lovers. When Hamas attacked the event, 360 people were murdered and 44 were taken hostage. Many of the 3,500-plus survivors rapidly developed symptoms of depression and PTSD. One effective approach to help them cope with that trauma, known as the Free Spirit Experience, is being funded in part by the Jewish Federation of St. Louis.
Prior to the Hamas attack, Free Spirit provided activities like hiking, dancing and yoga to help young adults who suffer from anxiety. The organization is based in Yokneam, St. Louis’ sister city in Israel. Free Spirit already had the expertise to work with struggling young people. It made the decision to pivot and treat Nova trauma victims exclusively at no charge. The expenses to provide that service came at a significant financial cost, though, according to Rami Bader, the organization’s executive director.
“We ran out of funds,” Bader said. “We said, ‘OK, what are we going to do next?’ So we started looking for donations. The program costs $40,000 every week. And then the Jewish Federation of St. Louis stepped in. We were literally about to close. We suddenly felt like we weren’t alone. This is an organization that cares. It didn’t solve all our financial problems, but it gave us the energy to keep running.”
Bader said although Free Spirit is a non-profit organization, it is commercial-based and self-sponsored. In September 2023, its financial situation was healthy. Just a few weeks later, everything changed for Israelis, and Free Spirit’s Bader said there was no question that they would support trauma victims.
“We started to meet the first survivors and we were in shock like everybody else,” he said. “We said ‘This is what we do—we deal with trauma.’ We hired more professional staff, including psychiatrists that specialize in trauma.”
In early May, Bader visited St. Louis to provide a status report on Free Spirit’s financial situation. He also had meetings in New York, Los Angeles and other cities where the Jewish communities pitched in to help. Bob Newmark, Federation board chair, said the importance of Free Spirit’s work made it a worthwhile investment.
“A key initiative of Jewish Federation is supporting needs in an epical partnership region in Yokneam-Meggido,” Newmark said. “This partnership has been running for decades. Shortly after Oct. 7 we became aware of this amazing program that had converted from a for-profit model to providing free counseling services for victims of the Oct. 7 attack.
“The nature of the work, and the location inside our partnership region, made this a logical place to deliver some of our targeted support raised through our Israel Emergency Campaign,” he said. “I’ve met with program participants first-hand and can attest to the power and effectiveness of their model.”
Free Spirit became a critical link toward helping trauma victims achieve some level of normalcy, Bader said.
“We were suddenly a more important resource than we ever were before,” Bader said. “We had a relative of one of our staff members that got injured. And we said, ‘We’re going to help.’ We do therapy. And we’re doing follow ups with all of the survivors. Every few weeks, we have a gathering of all of them in a community. We give them the tools to deal with the trauma, to identify signs of post trauma and the first steps, and then we keep working with them.”
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