Page 17 - Issue 19

needs with unconditional love, persistent understanding and
a demand that he help us help himself.

The first time he had a major violent incident it was very
difficult to engage him in conversation but I made it clear
that I wanted him to be with us and that I needed him to be
able to talk with me about what had happened in order to do
so. I never gave up on him and never told him that I didn’t
believe he could be a part of the youth movement. Since
then we've had all kinds of interactions, from silly, to active
and yes, some hard conversations about challenging needs
and behaviors.

Now normally when I'm running a peulah, Yossi has a fairly
short attention span. Even if the activity is purely kef or uses
highly engaging methods he's unlikely to be able to
participate for more than 10 or 15 minutes. And yet last year
when my parents came to visit for Hanukkah, my mom ran
an arts and crafts table at the ken’s Hanukkah party and he
helped her to translate and run the table for the younger kids
who came. He asks lots of questions about America and I
think that he was curious about my parents in part because
they were my parents, but in part because they had visited
from America, a place that he has always wanted to be.

So getting back to last week's conversation, we sat down and
I asked him some questions about school and life and he
gave some answers and then there was a period of silence.
He broke the silence by asking how my parents were doing. I
told him that they've been meeting only with my aunt and
uncle and no one else because the situation in the United