We all have ancestors, even if we don’t know much about them. Our family lineage has a direct impact on our present day lives in ways of which we are not fully cognizant, according to Rabbi Dr. Tirzah Firestone, who recently led Moving Toward a Healing-Centered Care, a JCFS sponsored training for Chicago area clinicians and other professionals.

Dry January is a global movement in which individuals and communities abstain from alcohol for one month. Dry January supports the many individuals who question the role alcohol plays in their lives or who seek to reduce the harm of their alcohol use.

Addiction Recovery is all around us, freely shared and supported! We are now celebrating one another’s recovery just as we have always celebrated positive change in other kinds of physical, spiritual and emotional well-being. So…how do we support loved ones who are living addiction-free? 

JCFS Chicago addiction services, in partnership with Live4Lali, is encouraging Jewish communal organizations to hold Overdose Prevention and Reversal (Narcan) Training for staff and community members.  We all have the responsibility to know how to save a life and with Narcan, it couldn’t be easier. 

The Jewish community has come a long way in acknowledging addiction as a significant issue and in supporting community members struggling with addiction and those in recovery. JCFS Chicago and the Chicago Board of Rabbis invite you to continue this forward momentum.  

Overdose deaths have reached unprecedented levels in recent years, particularly due to the increased stress, isolation, and barriers to addiction treatment brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The good news: we can learn to recognize symptoms of opioid overdose and administer the rescue drug Narcan (brand name for Naloxone), which can reverse opioid overdose symptoms within minutes.

Most of us would agree that gratitude is indisputably good. It is therefore reasonable to ask: if gratitude is so obviously good and valuable, what are the barriers to gratitude?

In 1989, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) established National Recovery Month as a national observance to promote and support new evidence-based substance use treatment and recovery practices.

Addiction wears many masks. It can look like physical, psychological and spiritual dependence on substances or the use of devices. 

What is compassion meditation, and how can it be so impactful so quickly? In this form of meditation, one offers simple phrases of good will to oneself and to others. Even short periods of compassion meditation has been found to reduce stress and increase positive emotions.