Rabbi Kivelevitz begins the discussion by observing that the Pandemic has disrupted the life of the extended family, inducing various stresses............ .........Professor Juni, drawing upon General Systems Theory with a particular focus on Triangulation, Alliances, and Coalitions charts out the negative as well as the positive roles grandparents have in families – highlighting specific divisiveness they tend to exacerbate between the spousal couple and in the parent-child relationship. In contrast to the notion that dyadic relationships are the building blocks of interpersonal units, Juni elaborates the primacy of the triangular interplay between three people, stressing that it typically features one positively engaged dyad in a collation against another family member. He uses this model to explain the vilification of the daughter-in-law or son-in-law, and the alliance of the grandparent with the grandchild against the parents. Appealing to the notion of self-propagating triangulation in all relationship clusters, the doctor uses this model to explain intra-clan warfare and conflict in extended families, within Arab tribes, and within Chasidic dynasties. Kivelevitz extends the analysis to examine the impact of aging has on the grandparents and how they can use their family involvement as a source of validation and integrity, especially in cultures where elders are revered. Taking the perspective of Positive Psychology, especially as it dovetails with the writings of Jewish Mussar luminaries, the Rabbi challenges Prof. Juni’s deterministic perspective that truly positive alliances between family members are nonexistent myths and that all relationships must feature significant negative interpersonal strife. While the Rabbi maintains that personal grievances can be overcome and ameliorated in time through efforts at character improvement and empathy, Prof, Juni takes the position that they are never truly corrected and that they are destined to find expression in inter=generational strife and splintering within the extended family structure.

Doctor Samuel Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today.

He has published groundbreaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals, and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations.

Samuel Juni studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchack Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchick.

Professor Juni is a prominent member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences.

Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of MA and PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in important research.

Professor Juni's scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psycho-dynamic psychopathology perspective.

He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies

entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations.

Professor Juni created and directed NYU's Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments.

Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors.

Below is a partial list of the journals

to which Professor Juni has contributed over 120 articles.

Many are available on line

Journal of Forensic Psychology

Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma.

International Review of Victimology

The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

International Forum of Psychoanalysis

Journal of Personality Assessment

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology

Psychophysiology

Psychology and Human Development

Journal of Sex Research

Journal of Psychology and Judaism

Contemporary Family Therapy

American Journal on Addictions

Journal of Criminal Psychology

Mental Health, Religion & Culture

As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT.

Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim.

Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America.

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