The Bradley Sonnenberg Wellness Series at Stephen Wise Temple is a new initiative that will focus on resilience, spirituality, and their relationship with personal identity in order to promote holistic wellness from a Jewish perspective. This Series is sponsored by the Sonnenberg family in memory of their beloved son whose own struggle with mental health inspires their continuing commitment to strengthening the wellness of the broader community.

 

The first guest in the series was Diane Shader Smith, author of Salt in My Soul: An Unfinished Life, who shared the heartwarming yet heart wrenching story of her daughter Mallory's life and fight with cystic fibrosis until her passing at 25. Rabbi Sari Laufer engaged Diane in a discussion of Mallory's Jewish identity and its influence on her life's path.

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The second guest will be Maryanne O’Hara, author of LITTLE MATCHES: A Memoir of Grief and Light, who will present a talk entitled “LITTLE MATCHES: Finding Strength in What Lights Up the Dark”. Maryanne will recount how she lost her beloved only child and set out to look for answers to life’s hard questions. Where is she? Is she? Is there more to life than this life? Does my existence have any real purpose? Does anyone’s? Using images and reflections that speak to universal themes, Maryanne will share her remarkable story of resilience, of finding light inside life’s darkest hours.

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The final guest of the initial season will be Andrea Sonnenberg, with a presentation that chronicles her harrowing experience in caring for a child with mental illness, entitled, “Our Mental Health Care Crisis: A Mother’s Cry for Change."

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