Meet the Oct7KIDS Team

Advisory Board

Yeshara Gold – FOUNDER and International Director

By profession, Yeshara is a writer and author, having careers in both Advertising and Journalism. But by passion, Yeshara is a pursuer of good. When Israel suffered a wave of terrorist attacks in 2000, she found good in starting KIDS FOR KIDS - Youth Organization for the Recovery of Young Victims of Terrorism. As the decade wound-down, so too the violence of the second Intifada with it, and she happily closed their doors.

Who could have envisioned the atrocities of October 7, 2023? Yeshara’s passion for good led her to establish Oct7KIDS, to benefit the children of soldiers, the hostages, those murdered, the evacuees, and all the children negatively impacted by the massacre and resulting war.

Throughout the years, Yeshara’s accomplishments reflect a deep concern for her community. She is a certified Grief Recovery Counselor; an energy healer of the Shefa technique; studied NLP intensely 5 days a week for a year under her teacher Jerry Strauss; learned at Option Institute with Barry Neil Kaufman, increasing her knowledge of the Dialogue Process, subsequently designing her own workshops in Jerusalem which she called Letting Happy Happen. Yeshara felt compelled to bring Byron Katy into Israel and introduce The Work, a method of self-inquiry, to the country (1998 & 1999) by arranging free workshops for public.

Yeshara made aliya to Israel in 1976 and lives in the Old City of Jerusalem with her husband, Rabbi Shalom Gold, head of the Talmudic academy, Yeshiva Rebbe Akiva. Their five children have grown and started families of their own.

She is the author of several books including “Hurry, Friday’s a Short Day” for children, and “I Lift My Eyes” for the adult audience. She was writing a new manuscript, “Servant for Life”, when October 7th derailed hundreds of thousands of Israeli lives. She set her work aside to focus on the mental health , well-being, and healing of traumatized Israeli children by opening the new organization Oct7KIDS. She anticipates only good.

Nina Meyerhof

Dr. Nina Meyerhof has dedicated her life to working for the betterment of children`s lives through developing empowerment processes with a focus on self-esteem, democratic living skills, understanding one’s spiritual nature and furthering a local to global perspective. She is the founder of the One Humanity Institute, and as President and Founder of the organization, Children of the Earth, she is a visionary thought leader recognized for a life of advocating for children and youth.

The co-author of “Conscious Education: The Bridge to Freedom”, and “Pioneering Spiritual Activism” she has been an innovative force in Authentic Education and Holistic Education. Nina was for 20 years Director of ten public schools Special Education programs as well as Interim Director of other school districts.

Nina has received many awards for her work from The Mother Theresa Award to the Citizens Department of Peace Award to The International Educators Award for Peace as well as the State of Vermont passed a Resolution honoring her for her life’s work in PEACE, the Sage Award and one of twelve recipients for the Public Peace Prize and is recognized as one of the world’s known Evolutionary Leaders.

Sarah Yehudit Schneider

Oct7KIDS Spiritual Advisor

Sarah Yehudit Schneider is one of our generations’ most unique and vibrant voices. She is recognized by a wide range of Torah scholars, spiritual seekers, teachers and students as an authentic embodiment of Torah learning and living.

Sarah Yehudit has pursued the study and practice of religion, meditation, and comparative mysticism since the early seventies, and since 1981 has lived in Jerusalem.

She is the founding director of A Still Small Voice, a correspondence school that has enrolled hundreds of students since its inception in 1991. She is the founder of The Golden Thread, a homeopathic remedy based on Torah and kabbalistic sources. Sarah also hosts Meditation Retreats, guiding participants through traditional Jewish meditative practices and instructs them on how to harness the holy lights of Shabbat for healing and transformation. She has recently produced a series of Illustrated Video Teachings on Jewish Meditation that makes these teachings available to a wider audience.

Sarah Yehudit writes and teaches in close cooperation with leading rabbanim and outreach professionals in Jerusalem.

Faigy Ort

Since 2017, Faigy Ort, a Licensed Social Worker has been working with families, young adults, couples and individuals dealing with a full spectrum of mental health diagnoses. Faigy approaches her clients’ therapy sessions with sensitivity, creativity, and respect for each individual and the therapeutic systems she utilizes.

Faigy draws from a variety of methods to create a personalized approach that resonates with an individual's strength, goals and struggles. She integrates DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), EFT, IFS and SE (Somatic Experiencing) to provide a multidisciplinary supportive platform for her client's journey toward healing.

For over a decade prior to her counseling career, Faigy practiced as a Speech Language Pathologist. Faigy holds a MSW, with a concentration in Substance Abuse, and is CASAC-T certified. She also has a BS and MS in Speech Language Pathology and a certificate degree in Creative Arts.

Shifra Wohlgelernter

EMDR Program Director

Dr. Shifra Wohlgelernter is a mother and neuropsychologist living with her family in the Old City of Jerusalem. She has been working with children since she was a child herself, volunteering with children with special needs. With an MA in Special Education, she specialized in executive function development.

Her current focus as a psychologist includes working with children, adolescents, adults, and parents towards authentic connection in the inter/intrapersonal realms. Dr. Wohlgelernter has worked at Bar Ilan University’s research lab, Alyn Children’s Hospital School System as Director of Psychological Services, and at her private clinic for over 20 years.

She is an Internal Family Systems IFS) supervisor, certified EMDR (Eye MovementDesensitization & Reprocessing) therapist, trained in Narrative Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), and finding joy in integrating ideas and approaches. Voluntarily, Shifra is involved in paliative and trauma assistance, and leads self development groups.

Dr. Wohlgelernter is the developer and Director of the EMDR Program at Oct7KIDS.

Devorah Cohen

OUTREACH DIRECTOR

Born and raised in Jerusalem, Devorah Cohen spent 20 years in Texas working with various Jewish
educational venues and Kiruv organizations.

Her classes, whether for children, teens, or adults, are always relevant, meaningful and fun. This dynamic wife and mother also has a passion for contributing her talents to projects in special education, theater, stand-up comedy, and eJEWcation.

Lori Leyden

Inspired by her work with orphan genocide survivors in Rwanda, Dr. Lori Leyden founded the non-profit, Create Global Healing in 2007 to support traumatized young people around the world to heal, work and lead us into a peaceful future.

Lori and her team have brought comfort, peace and hope to thousands around the world from Rwanda to Australian Indigenous and Refugee communities and post school shooting communities in Newtown, CT, and Parkland, FL.

On February 18, 2018 a shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL took the lives of 17 people and injured 17 others. Dr. Leyden was invited to collaborate with Children’s Services Council of Broward County to train mental health professionals serving the many communities affected by this tragedy. Over a two-year period, Dr. Leyden trained over 240 clinicians in the use of EFT for Trauma. EFT is now being used in schools and mental health agencies recognize the effectiveness. Dr. Leyden continues to provide mentoring services to Broward Country mental health professionals.

Her organization, Create Global Healing, provides online Trauma Relief and Resiliency Training and Consulting Services for individuals and groups serving traumatized communities around the world. Now, Dr. Leyden brings her knowledge, skills, and humanity to Israel’s crisis, by training Oct7KIDS staff, who will in turn, train Adult Leaders (teachers, guidance counselors, social workers, etc.) who interact with children daily. Dr. Leyden will also be imparting these down regulating techniques to Youth Movement Group leaders who operate in the field of informal education and reach every sector of Israeli society.

Rabbi Shalom Gold

Spiritual Advisor

The great Rabbi Akiva, who lived in the latter part of the First Century, began his Judaic learning later in life. So too, Rabbi Shalom Gold. Raised in an assimilated American environment, he rejected an easy life in the business world for which he was groomed. Gold began a spiritual search which spanned the first forty years of his life. During this journey, he explored many religions and ideologies, ultimately realizing that his true path lay in his roots.

Perhaps it’s because of this journey, he has a particularly perceptive and compassionate listening ear for others. Rabbi Gold is known to give wise counsel, not just to his students, but to many in his community.

There is no surprise that Rabbi Gold named his new Talmudic Academy, Yeshiva Rabbi Akiva, in 2006, in the very heart of Jerusalem. The Old City campus is 100 meters from the Western Wall and the Temple Mount.