Anchoring hope

Following the October 7 attacks in 2023, and amid the ongoing conflict in the region, Israeli children are grappling with psychological wounds that may take years—if not decades—to heal. For many, the trauma is tragically familiar. Years of exposure to violence, displacement, and national emergencies have left deep emotional scars. With tensions persisting, the need to address the mental health of Israeli children and teens has reached a critical peak.

To meet this urgent need, the Weizmann Institute of Science has launched Ogen—Hebrew for “anchor”—a groundbreaking national program designed to foster emotional resilience in children affected by trauma. Spearheaded by Weizmann President Prof. Alon Chen, a world-renowned expert in the neurobiology of stress and stress‑linked psychopathologies, Ogen aims to change the trajectory of an entire generation.

Prof. Chen was already aware of and deeply concerned by the overload and long wait times in the public mental health system when it comes to treating psychopathologies such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among children and adolescents. The coronavirus pandemic and the October 7 onslaught only increased demand on an overtaxed system.

One way of addressing this mental health crisis, Prof. Chen explains, is to treat identified psychological conditions using existing tools and try to intervene as soon as possible after the traumatizing event. 

“But at the same time, we need to work on prevention,” he says. While wars and stress will always exist, he adds, it is vital to teach children and teens how to cope in situations in which they are exposed to stress. 

“Training them in how to become resilient is an extremely important part of Ogen, as is identifying [especially] sensitive individuals and trying to treat them, if needed.” 

“PTSD is not simply related to whether you are resilient or susceptible to experiences. There’s also a genetic component,” he explains, meaning that some children have a genetic predisposition to developing stress-related difficulties. 

“We have identified a key brain mechanism that is especially sensitive to childhood trauma,” Prof. Chen says. “But the most exciting part is the prospect of using the plasticity of the young brain to help it recover, avoiding the toll this trauma can exact in adulthood.”

Early intervention

The current conflict has affected nearly every Israeli child, whether through direct exposure, prolonged displacement, or fear for the safety of loved ones. While 5–10% may develop anxiety, depression, or eating disorders, research shows that many children in Israel experience some level of psychological or social disruption.

A dire shortage of trained mental health professionals further compounds this challenge. Wait times for psychiatric care can exceed 12 months, and most children in need may never see a clinician. Without early, accessible intervention, the effects of trauma can solidify, altering brain development and leading to academic struggles, social withdrawal, and lifelong emotional challenges.

The Ogen program offers a scalable, science-informed model of care. Inspired by the successful Perach national tutoring program launched at the Weizmann Institute in 1973—which has paired countless university students with disadvantaged youth across the country in the decades since—Ogen zeroes in on a vital focus area: mental health resilience.

Like Perach (Hebrew for “flower” and the acronym for “tutoring project”), the Ogen initiative recruits university students majoring in psychology, education, social work, or health‑related fields, as mentors. In exchange for full‑tuition scholarships and professional training, these students dedicate four hours each week to classroom-based resilience programming.

After intensive training, these mentors are matched with classes in grades 4 through 9, where they lead resilience-building activities for groups and individuals that help children process stress, boost their confidence, and recognize their emotional needs, serving as a stable presence throughout the school year. “The mentors are high‑quality, professional, and wonderful,” said Shani, a school counselor from the Be’er Sheva area.

The program also includes mechanisms for the early identification of children at risk. When necessary, mentors refer children who might need professional clinical care to providers, collaborating with hospitals such as Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan.

Where it all began

Following the October 7 attacks, Prof. Chen says his first impulse was to come up with a solution that would help the country’s healthcare system cope with the increasing need for psychological intervention. He reached out to hospital directors and heads of psychiatry to see how the Weizmann Institute could assist, but found there were limited options for offering help in this context.  

In March 2024, he attended a ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem marking the 50-year anniversary of the Perach program. Prof. Chen, who currently serves as Chairman of Perach and was also a Perach mentor in his student days, shared his long-held concerns about the treatment provided for children dealing with stress and trauma. It had always bothered him that only those taken to emergency care with severe symptoms of stress‑related disorders—some 5% of those suffering from stress and trauma‑related symptoms—are provided with effective psychological or psychiatric intervention. 

The majority of children showing symptoms of psychopathologies related to stress and trauma are “invisible” to the system and untreated, he says. 

Then it clicked: why not use the Perach model to intervene with the 95% of children exposed to stress whose symptoms are not severe enough to fast-track them to psychiatric care? 

He began considering the potential impact—not only for the children themselves, but also for the healthcare system and society as a whole—of treating the non-acute cases. “I said, if there aren’t enough physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers, why shouldn’t we use [university] students working on degrees in social work, education, and healthcare?”

He called social worker and scholar Prof. Orit Nuttman-Shwartz, who founded the School of Social Work at Sapir Academic College in Sderot and had just retired. He and one of his former students, a psychiatrist, met with her and began brainstorming. They established a steering committee of experts from different fields to help formulate the concept of a new program to be implemented in the Israeli school system, in which student mentors would reach children immediately and in a familiar setting. 

Why Weizmann?

Founding and launching Ogen just a year after October 7 was no small feat, but one the Weizmann Institute was uniquely positioned to pull off. Prof. Chen explains the combination of factors that made it possible—passion for the subject, his contacts and professional reputation and that of Prof. Nuttman-Shwartz and the other committee members, as well as the Weizmann philanthropic community, which has responded generously. 

“It grew so fast. The concept was born in March [2024] and by November, we were in schools. I don’t think anyone other than the Weizmann Institute would have been able to do that,” he says. 

The result was an initial cohort of student-mentors who completed Ogen training on the Weizmann campus in the autumn of 2024, with a second cohort that completed their training in January 2025, producing 97 student-mentors who worked with 2,700 children in grades 4-9 in the program’s pilot year, which he describes as “fantastic.” 

Ogen’s pilot launched during the 2024-2025 academic year in two cities in southern Israel where the effects of trauma have been especially acute: Ofakim, which suffered a direct assault on October 7, and Be’er Sheva, which hosts evacuees from Gaza-border towns, presenting both a pressing need and an unparalleled opportunity for impact.

In the 2025-2026 school year, Ogen is expanding to additional towns in southern Israel as well as to the country’s north, which saw over 100,000 residents evacuated and massive destruction due to Hezbollah shelling. Prof. Chen expects the second year of the program to include about 200 student-mentors in southern Israel and 100 more in the north, working with some 8,000 children—three times the reach of the pilot year. 

He also notes that there is “huge” interest from college and university students, with applications for student-mentor training flooding in, even with the significant commitment that the program demands. Unlike Perach, which does not follow a lesson plan, and where the benefit to participants comes mainly from time spent with their mentors, Ogen follows an established curriculum that requires mentors to prepare activities for each weekly meeting.

Currently, Prof. Chen says, one of the factors limiting the scope of the program is the difficulty in identifying appropriate and qualified mentors, especially since only second and third-year [undergraduate] students are eligible, and they are selected “quite carefully.” 

Building bridges

Ogen is designed to meet children where they are—in schools, during the school day, supported by trusted adults. This low-barrier, non‑stigmatizing structure is essential, especially in communities where seeking mental health care is often inaccessible or culturally taboo.

The program also builds unexpected bridges between populations, promoting empathy, shared identity, and a deeper sense of national cohesion by pairing mentors and youth from different backgrounds.

While a formal evaluation of the pilot year is still being conducted, early responses have been enthusiastic, and surveys from mentors, parents, and school staff are providing valuable insights that help refine the model.

Prof. Chen describes the feedback from educators as “extraordinary.” 

“We are enchanted with this program. It’s simply perfect. These are children who are really in need. [This is a] real prevention program,” remarks Yael Ziv, a school principal in Ofakim.

“The mentors are so professional… I am truly witnessing a positive process with the students,” adds a teacher at Uziel Chabad School in Be’er Sheva.

“A good indication of the success of the program is that every school that participated this past year wants to stay in the program. Now, in Year 2, we’re going to the north, including Arab Israeli schools.” Prof. Chen says. 

Preparations are underway for expansion into northern Israel, where a mosaic of communities—Jewish, Arab, Druze, and Circassian—face their own distinct challenges. Ogen is being adapted to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of each area, with new partnerships forming between the Weizmann Institute and local institutions such as Tel-Hai College, Western Galilee College, and Zefat Academic College.

This community-based, future‑focused strategy emphasizes local engagement and ensures that the program supports not only the healing of individual children but also that of the broader community around them.

“I think it’s an amazing model,” Prof. Chen says. “It’s very important to emphasize that even by just reaching out to these children, they are no longer ‘invisible.’ We hear their stories. The signature created by the trauma, by the stress, ‘sits’ in their cells. The vast majority will cope. They’ll recover and most might not even remember. But in five or 10 years, they’re going to be exposed to trauma as soldiers or in their civilian life and the ‘signature,’ the memory of the early trauma, will resurface. We have scientific evidence for this.”

A ripple effect

Ultimately, Prof. Chen believes the Ogen program will grow to a point when it will require more than philanthropic support to keep it running. The Weizmann Institute will continue to develop and manage Ogen, with the goal of then handing it over to receive government support through the Education Ministry—much like Perach before it. During this time, data gathered from Ogen will also feed into scientific research at the Institute, advancing our understanding of trauma, stress, and resilience.

The classroom model used by Ogen enables a single mentor to work with many students, creating a huge ripple effect, one that could have a profound impact on the emotional well-being of multiple generations. The need, Prof. Chen emphasizes, is enormous.

“If we had 10,000 student-mentors, they could be working with 270,000 kids,” he says. “Every school in the country would probably love to have Ogen.”

Most importantly, the children are flourishing. Participating classrooms have an “Ogen corner,” he adds. Children adore their mentors, who report kids waiting for them at the school gates on “Ogen day.” 

“I can’t wait for Mondays, which is our Ogen day,” writes one child in a heartfelt note. “Every Monday I’ll be happy because I’ll be waiting for class to start and for Ogen to begin.”

ogen is supported by: 

Myriam Dahan and Ronald Reuben

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation 

Federation CJA

The Joseph Lebovic Charitable Foundation and The Dr. Wolf Lebovic Charitable Foundation

Jack and Barbara Prince

Larry and Judy Tanenbaum Family Foundation

Alon Chen is supported by:

The Ruhman Family Laboratory for Research in the Neurobiology of Stress

Edmond de Rothschild Foundation

The Vera and John Schwartz Professorial Chair in Neurobiology

The Hugo Enrique Gerber Research Fellow Chair in Neurosciences supports a staff scientist in Prof. Chen’s lab