Federation Hosts Community Briefing on Israel Trauma Coalition

The Jewish Federation of St. Louis is hosting a Community Briefing about the work of the Israel Trauma Coalition on Wednesday, June 25 at 5:30 pm at the Jewish Federation Kopolow Building, 12 Millstone Campus Drive. The briefing will feature special guests Talia Levanon, director of ITC, and Omer Egozi, director of resource development for ITC.

The ITC, an agency directly supported by Jewish Federation of St. Louis, is a collaborative network of more than 40 organizations committed to a proactive role in policy making and the provision of a systematic continuum of trauma-related care and preparedness. The ITC partners with more than 60 organizations including NGOs, government ministries and Home Front Command to ensure a comprehensive view of needs, delivery of services in a timely fashion and the creation of a continuum of trauma care. It brings together Israeli experts with many years of experience in this field. The organization is involved in direct care, training and supervision, and creating responses and preparedness at both the municipal and national levels. In addition, they have assisted in other countries in times of disaster—such as the Boston Marathon bombing, the earthquake in Haiti, the tsunami in Japan and the school shooting in France—training leaders of affected communities how to help residents pick up the pieces of their lives.

Levanon and Egozi will share information about their work in Israel and other countries, the current security situation on Israel’s home front, Israel’s preparedness, and their work with Syrian refugees.

Doors open at 5, wine and hors d’oeuvres reception following presentation (dietary laws observed). This program is free, but please RSVP by Friday, June 20 to Darlene Flinn at dflinn@jfedstl.org or 314-442-3831.

Talia Levanon was born in Switzerland and raised in Nigeria. She has a master’s degree in clinical social work from Bar Ilan University and degrees in integrative psychotherapy and social work from Hebrew University. During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, she served as an officer in the Israeli army, working with bereaved families and wounded soldiers.

Born in Israel, Omer Egozi has lived and worked in Rome, Paris and London. He has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Islam and Middle East studies from the Hebrew University. He joined the ITC in 2009 after nearly seven years at the Glocal Forum foundation, where he developed new models for development and peace-building for post-conflict countries in the Third World. Egozi served under Shimon Peres, Zipi Livni and Roni Milo as a senior projects coordinator in the Ministry for Regional Cooperation. As director of resource development, he is responsible for the development and execution of a long-term strategic plan to ensure ongoing financial support for the ITC and raising public awareness of the work of the ITC.