Top

Published in:

01-06-2011 | original paper

Health Care Behaviours and Beliefs in Hasidic Jewish Populations: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Authors: Kate Coleman-Brueckheimer, Simon Dein

Published in: Journal of Religion and Health | Issue 2/2011

Abstract

Cultural issues impact on health care, including individuals’ health care behaviours and beliefs. Hasidic Jews, with their strict religious observance, emphasis on kabbalah, cultural insularity and spiritual leader, their Rebbe, comprise a distinct cultural group. The reviewed studies reveal that Hasidic Jews may seek spiritual healing and incorporate religion in their explanatory models of illness; illness attracts stigma; psychiatric patients’ symptomatology may have religious content; social and cultural factors may challenge health care delivery. The extant research has implications for clinical practice. However, many studies exhibited methodological shortcomings with authors providing incomplete analyses of the extent to which findings are authentically Hasidic. High-quality research is required to better inform the provision of culturally competent care to Hasidic patients.

The Lubavitch movement was founded in the late eighteenth century by Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1745–1812) in Imperial Russia. In 1940, the headquarters moved to Brooklyn, New York.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902–1994), the last Lubavitcher Rebbe.

Bratslav Hasidism was founded by Rebbe Nahman of Bratstlav (1772–1810) in 1802 in the Ukrainian town after which the group is named. No successor was designated and the group has been without a Rebbe since his death.

Introductions for the purpose of marriage take place within a formal system of matchmaking.

Toldos Aharon (lit. Generations of Aharon) was founded in the mid-twentieth century by Avrohom Yitzchok Kahn (d. 1996) and has its headquarter in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. Toldos Aharon is characterized by fervent and emotional prayer and an exceptionally strict lifestyle.

Chapple, A., Ziebland, S., & McPherson, A. (2004). Stigma, shame, and blame experienced by patients with lung cancer: Qualitative study. British Medical Journal, 328(7454), 1470–1474.PubMedCrossRef

Coleman-Brueckheimer, K., Spitzer, J., & Koffman, J. (2009). Involvement of Rabbinic and communal authorities in decision-making by haredi Jews in the UK with breast cancer: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. Social Science and Medicine, 68, 323–333.PubMedCrossRef

Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI). (2008). Putting people first: Equality and diversity matters 2. Providing appropriate services for black and minority ethnic people. London: CSCI.

Corrigan, P. W., River, L. P., Lundon, R. K., Uphoff Wasowski, K., Campion, J., Mathisen, J., et al. (2000). Stigmatizing attributions about mental illness. Journal of Community Psychology, 28(1), 91–102.CrossRef

Dan, J. (1998). Hasidism: The third century. In A. Rappoport-Albert (Ed.), Hasidism reappraised. Oxford: Littman.

Dein, S. (2002). The power of words: Healing narratives among Lubavitcher Hasidim. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 16(1), 41–63.CrossRef

Dein, S. (2004a). From chaos to cosmogency: A comparison of understandings of the narrative process among Western academics and Hasidic Jews. Anthropology and Medicine, 11(2), 135–147.CrossRef

Dein, S. (2004b). Religion and healing among the Lubavitch community in Stamford hill, North London. Lewiston, Queenston, Lampeter: The Edwin Mellen Press.

Dein, S. (2006). Culture and cancer care anthropological insights in oncology. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Department of Health (DH). (2007). Positive steps: Supporting race equality in mental healthcare. London: DH.

Erez, R., Rabin, S., Shenkman, L., & Kitai, E. (1999). A family physician in an Ultraorthodox Jewish village. Journal of Religion and Health, 38(1), 67–71.CrossRef

Feinberg, S. S. (2005). Issues in the psychopharmacologic assessment and treatment of the Orthodox Jewish patient. CNS Spectrums, 10(12), 954–965.PubMed

Fitchett, G., Murphy, P. E., Kim, J., Gibbons, J. L., Cameron, J. R., & Davis, J. A. (2004). Religious struggle: Prevalence, correlates and mental health risks in diabetic, congestive heart failure, and oncology patients. International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, 34(2), 179–196.PubMedCrossRef

Flanagan, J., & Holmes, S. (2000). Social perceptions of cancer and their impacts: Implications for nursing practice arising from the literature. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32(3), 740–749.PubMedCrossRef

Flannelly, K. J., Weaver, A. J., & Handzo, G. F. (2007). A three-year study of chaplains’ professional activities at Memorial Sloan-kettering cancer center in New York City. Psycho-Oncology, 12(8), 760–768.CrossRef

Gall, T. (2004). Relationship with God and the quality of life of prostate cancer survivors. Quality of Life Research, 13(8), 1357–1368.PubMedCrossRef

Goddard, D., & Helmreich, W. B. (2004). Ethnicity and health: Attitudes of Italian Americans and Hasidic Jews towards osteoporosis. Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, 28(1), 55–82.

Goodman, Y. C. (2009). “You look, thank God, quite good on the outside”: Imitating the ideal self in a Jewish Ultra-Orthodox rehabilitation site. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 23(2), 122–141.PubMedCrossRef

Goodman, Y. C. (2009). Personal communication (email), 31 May 2009.

Goodman, Y., & Witztum, E. (2002). Cross-cultural encounters between careproviders: Rabbis’ referral letters to a psychiatric clinic in Israel. Social Science and Medicine, 55, 1309–1323.PubMedCrossRef

Ismail, H., Wright, J., Rhodes, P., & Small, N. (2005). Religious beliefs about the causes of epilepsy. British Journal of General Practice, 55(510), 26–31.PubMed

Kirmayer, L. (2004). The cultural diversity of healing: Meaning, metaphor and mechanism. British Medical Bulletin, 69, 33–48.PubMedCrossRef

Koffman, J., Morgan, M., Edmonds, P., Speck, P., & Higginson, I. J. (2008). “I know he controls cancer”: The meanings of religion among Clack Caribbean and White British patients with advanced cancer. Social Science and Medicine, 67(5), 780–789.PubMedCrossRef

Kwok, C., Cant, R., & Sullivan, G. (2005). Factors associated with mammographic decisions of Chinese-Australian women. Health Education Research, 20(6), 739–747.PubMedCrossRef

Law, J., & Wallfish, T. (1991). Do ‘minority’ groups have special needs? Speech therapy and the Chasidic Jewish community in north London. Child: Care, Health and Development, 17, 319–329.CrossRef

Lee, V., Cohen, S. R., Edgar, L., Laizner, A. M., & Gagnon, A. J. (2006). Meaning-making intervention during breast or colorectal cancer treatment improves self-esteem, optimism, and self-efficacy. Social Science and Medicine, 62, 3133–3145.PubMedCrossRef

Littlewood, R. (1983). The antinomian Hasid. British Journal of Medical Psychiatry, 56, 67–78.

Littlewood, R., & Dein, S. (1995). The effectiveness of words: religion and healing among the Lubavitch of Stamford Hill. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 19, 339–383.PubMedCrossRef

Mark, N., & Roberts, L. (1994). Ethnosensitive techniques in the treatment of the Hasidic cancer patient. Cancer Practice, 2(3), 202–208.PubMed

Mintz, J. R. (1994). Hasidic people: A place in the new world. Cambridge, MA, London: Harvard University Press.

Needell, N. J., & Markowitz, J. C. (2004). Hypersexual behaviour in Hasidic Jewish inpatients. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 192(3), 243–246.PubMedCrossRef

Paradis, C. M., Friedman, S., & Hatch, M. J. (1996). Cognitive behavioral treatment of anxiety disorders in Orthodox Jews. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 3, 271–288.CrossRef

Pargament, K. (1997). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. New York/London: The Guilford Press.

Raz, A. E., & Vizner, Y. (2008). Carrier matching and collective socialization in community genetics: Dor Yeshorim and the reinforcement of stigma. Social Science and Medicine, 67, 1361–1369.PubMedCrossRef

Rosen, D. D., Greenberg, D., Schmeidler, J., & Shefler, G. (2008). Stigma of mental illness, religious change, and explanatory models of mental illness among Jewish patients at a mental-health clinic in North Jerusalem. Mental Health Religion and Culture, 11(2), 193–209.CrossRef

Schechter, I., Langner, E., & Bergeron. (2008). Diagnostic, clinical and sociodemographic description of an ultra-orthodox and Hasidic Jewish population: an outpatient mental health clinic sample. Unpublished. Presented at Nefesh International 2008 Conference.

Shaked, M. (2005). The social trajectory of illness: Autism in the ultraorthodox community in Israel. Social Science and Medicine, 61, 2190–2200.PubMedCrossRef

Shaked, M., & Bilu, Y. (2006). Grappling with affliction: Autism in the ultraorthodox community in Israel. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 30, 1–27.PubMedCrossRef

Sheinfeld, H., Gal, M., Bunzel, M. E., & Vishne, T. (2007). The etiology of some menstrual disorders: A gynecological and psychiatric issue. Health Care for Women International, 28, 817–827.PubMedCrossRef

Skinner, D. G., Correa, V., Skinner, M., & Bailey, D. B., Jr. (2001). Role of religion in the lives of Latino families of young children with developmental delays. American Journal of Mental Retardation, 106(4), 297–313.PubMedCrossRef

Stein-Zamir, C. (2008). Personal communication (email) dated 18 February 2008.

Stein-Zamir, C. (2009). Personal communication (email) dated 21 April 2009.

Stein-Zamir, C., Zentner, G., Abramson, N., Shoob, H., Aboudy, Y., Shulman, L., et al. (2008). Measles outbreaks affecting children in Jewish ultra-orthodox communities in Jerusalem. Epidemiology and Infection, 136, 207–214.PubMed

Strang, S., & Strang, P. (2002). Questions posed to hospital chaplains by palliative care patients. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 5(6), 857–864.PubMedCrossRef

Trappler, B., Greenberg, S., & Friedman, S. (1995). Treatment of Hassidic Jewish patients in a general hospital medical-psychiatric unit. Psychiatric Services, 46(8), 833–835.PubMed

US Department of Health, Human Services (HSS) Office of Minority Health (OMS). (2001). National standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services in health care final report. Rockville, MD: HSS OMS.

US Department of Health, Human Services (HSS) Office of the Surgeon General (OSG). (1999). Mental health: A report of the surgeon general. Rockville, MD: HSS OSG.

Vishne, T., Misgav, S., & Bunzel, M. E. (2008). Psychiatric disorders related to menstrual bleeding among an ultra-orthodox population: Case series and literature review. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 54(3), 219–224.PubMedCrossRef

Wertheim, A. (1992). Law and custom in hasidism. Hoboken, NJ: KTAV Publishing House.

Wilson, K., & Luker, K. A. (2006). At home in hospital? Interaction and stigma in people affected by cancer. Social Science and Medicine, 62(7), 1616–1627.PubMedCrossRef

Witztum, E., Greenberg, D., & Buchbinder, J. T. (1990). “A very narrow bridge”; Diagnosis and management of mental illness among Bratslav Hasidim. Psychotherapy, 27(1), 124–131.CrossRef

Wright, M. C. (2001). Chaplaincy in hospice and hospital: Findings from a survey in England and Wales. Palliative Medicine, 15, 229–242.PubMedCrossRef

Zalcberg, S. (2009). Channels of information about menstruation and sexuality among Hasidic adolescent girls. NASHIM, 17, 60–88.

Title: Health Care Behaviours and Beliefs in Hasidic Jewish Populations: A Systematic Review of the Literature
Authors: Kate Coleman-Brueckheimer
Simon Dein
Publication date: 01-06-2011
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Journal of Religion and Health / Issue 2/2011
Print ISSN: 0022-4197
Electronic ISSN: 1573-6571
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-010-9448-2

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on sleep in brain health

Springer Medicine

Health Care Behaviours and Beliefs in Hasidic Jewish Populations: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Abstract

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on sleep in brain health

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 2/2011

The Impact of a Breast Cancer Diagnosis on Religious/Spiritual Beliefs and Practices in the UK

Self-forgiveness in Psychology and Psychotherapy: A Critique

Spiritual Well-Being, Cortisol, and Suicidality in Croatian War Veterans Suffering from PTSD

Philosophical Implications of the Systemic and Patient-Oriented Management of Chronic Heart Failure

An Ethic of Resistance: Choosing Life in Health Messages for African American Women

Theory in Religion, Aging, and Health: An Overview