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Naomi L. Baum

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Apr 18, 2018, 10:00 AM

Kaddish for our fallen soldiers

On Yom Hazikaron, as we in Israel remember our fallen soldiers and victims of terror, I consider one of my memories from my year of Kaddish. David Golovensis, a 22-year-old soldier and neighbor of mine was tragically killed during his...

Apr 8, 2018, 10:51 PM

On the eve of Yom Hashoah, the day we remember the 6,000,000 Jews who perished in the Holocaust, writing about my final Kaddish, the prayer for the dead seems particularly appropriate. I have been counting down the days to this...

Feb 18, 2018, 3:58 AM

Life unexpected: Kaddish continues

The first day of Shiva dawns bright and early. It is 6:30 AM and I am already dressed in the same black tunic, the shirt that I ripped yesterday at my mother's funeral as an overt expression of my...

Feb 4, 2018, 12:43 AM

Life unexpected: Saying kaddish

The text of the mourner's kaddish. (via Rabbi Raymond Apple: https://www.oztorah.com)

Without Mom, I am adrift, missing the anchor I'd never realized was holding me and grounding me

Jun 28, 2017, 10:15 PM

Life Unexpected: Losing My Mom

My mom was one month short of her 91st birthday when she passed on. Mom knew how to live life fully. Swimming daily well into her 90th year, attending study groups and concerts, even dancing at weddings, Mom was...

Apr 25, 2017, 3:34 PM

Resilience from the rubble: Musings on the 2nd anniversary of the Nepal earthquake

Hard-earned Israeli trauma expertise has empowered women to rebuild communities devastated by the 2015 earthquake

Jul 3, 2016, 3:27 PM

Looking for my Jewish Roots in Hamburg

When the Hamburg Senate sent me a formal letter inviting me to participate in their annual program for the children of Jews born in Hamburg, I accepted with both trepidation and excitement. My father, born in 1925, to a...

May 1, 2016, 8:50 PM

Stumbling on the Holocaust: Surprising Stolpersteins

A recent trip to Amsterdam offered the opportunity for a visit to the home of my namesake, Elinor Chava Oettinger, and her parents and brother. 45 Michelangelostraat was our destination and on a cloudy afternoon in late March, after...

Mar 11, 2016, 3:03 PM

High Holidays in Bali

On the Indonesian island for Nyepi, a solemn day of praying, no driving and preparing to burn the ogoh-ogohs

Sep 22, 2015, 4:06 PM

Preparing for Yom Kippur: Soul Searching in a Buddhist Monastery

I look out from the very top of a green mountain overlooking sprawling Kathmandu. Quiet permeates the air with an occasional eagle spreading its wings soaring overhead. The mountains in the far distance are an ever changing tableau-variously swathed...

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About Me

Naomi L Baum, Ph.D., is an international consultant in the field of psychological management of traumas and disasters with an emphasis on resilience. She recently published a book, "Life Unexpected: A Trauma Psychologist Journeys through Breast Cancer." She is the mother of seven and grandmother of 12.