Some of our personal identities include much more than ourselves. The concept of family and identity is posited to be inherently founded on common rituals and narratives. Some of these are religious, but many are tinged by personalized events and interpretations of reality and history. Many may even be bizarre, distorted, or untrue. Dr. Juni conceptualizes such artifacts as part of the required social-psychological features of group identity: defining others are outsiders to give one’s own group or family the feeling of being insiders........Rabbi Kivelevitz focuses on the Passover Seder as a family event which combines cultural and family rituals and often serves as the singular yearly event which fosters family connections and identity. Juni concurs, noting that the multi-sensory smorgasbord of food, visual cues, and food all enhance the complex fabric of narrative and identity....... Kivelevitz opines that it may, paradoxically, be functional to limit such events to once yearly, in order to preserve their potency and significance, noting that yearly religious-cultural events serve as time markers for personal and familial watershed transitions. He also notes that it is crucial that each family member—regardless of sophistication, or religious persuasion – is given to the opportunity to verbalize and share the personal meaning the events may hold (or not) for himself or herself. This imbues personal significance to the holiday and its celebration to one and all, even if that relevance may be tangential or antithetical to the cultural intent of the event. In this vein, Kivelevitz engages Juni in a discussion about the relative merits of having different memorial events for momentous markers in religion, culture, or family. Specifically, the discussants consider the debate whether to combine Yom HaShoah with Tish B’Av, or celebrating personal miracles as part of the Passover Seder. Relatedly, the two debate whether it is appropriate to combine discussions of the historical Egyptian exodus with the recent Holocaust experience - -especially for survivors and their families.

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. Please leave us a review or email us at [email protected] This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate