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Published: Nov. 8, 2022, 11:28 p.m.

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 The Memorial as a False Idol 

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The institution of naming streets and erecting buildings to honor heroes and others is scrutinized from sociological, psychological, and existential perspectives. As a parallel motif,the recent woke-grounded phenomenon of tearing down monuments and un-naming streets and endeavors is similarly analyzed. With some debate and qualifications,both discussants agree the intent in these namings is to keep the hero\\u2019s ideals alive for a long time, allowing him/her to exist even after death.  

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Prof. Juni argues that the extant dynamic here is anxiety about death and the dread of mortality. Psychiatrically,this effort would definitely be classified as delusional, but its pathology is
mitigated by the fact that the tendency is so widespread across cultures. 

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Annotating his rebuttal from highlights from famous films and literary work, R. Kivelevitz presents his position that the primary impetus for these memorial efforts is the striving of
family members to keep alive the memory of a loved one. Thus, it is the survivors\\u2019 discomfort with the curtailed existence of their loved one which is central here rather than the yearnings of the deceased as such. 

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Juni goes on to elaborate that any human activity is inherently insignificant unless it is anchored in a transcendent belief system that features more than the physical world. He
argues that the drive to produce or to achieve any laudable goals is merely a sublimated neurotic effort to deal with death anxiety while being anchored in the recognition of existential meaninglessness.  

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Taking the political perspective of street naming -- particularly in Israel, Juni interprets the ubiquitous phenomenon as an
aspect of colonization \\u2013 i.e., affixing an indigenous Israeli stamp throughout the Jewish state. He sees this effort as a form of colonization via re-naming. 

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R. Kivelevitz concludes by recounting some of his own transcendent experiences in connection with memorials to sages and his Rabbinic mentors long departed, whose significance
Juni politely follows with demurrals.  

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Prof. Juni is one of the foremost research psychologists in the world today. He has published ground-breaking original research in seventy different peer reviewed journals and is cited continuously with respect by colleagues and experts in the field who have built on his theories and observations. 

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He studied in Yeshivas Chaim Berlin under Rav Yitzchak Hutner, and in Yeshiva University as a Talmid of Rav Joseph Dov Soloveitchik. Dr. Juni is a board member of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and has regularly presented addresses to captivated audiences. Associated with NYU since 1979, Juni has served as Director of PhD programs, all the while heading teams engaged in cutting-edge research. Professor Juni\'s scholarship on aberrant behavior across the cultural, ethnic, and religious spectrum is founded on psychometric methodology and based on a psychodynamic psychopathology perspective. He is arguably the preeminent expert in Differential Diagnostics, with each of his myriad studies entailing parallel efforts in theory construction and empirical data collection from normative and clinical populations. 

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Professor Juni created and directed the NYU Graduate Program in Tel Aviv titled Cross-Cultural Group Dynamics in Stressful Environments. Based in Yerushalayim, he collaborates with Israeli academic and mental health specialists in the study of dissonant factors and tensions in the Arab-Israeli conflict and those within the Orthodox Jewish community, while exploring personality challenges of second-generation Holocaust survivors. 

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Below is a partial list of the professional journals where Professor Juni has published 120 theoretical articles and his research findings (many are available online): 

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Journal of Forensic Psychology; Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma; International Review of Victimology; The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease; International Forum of Psychoanalysis; Journal of Personality Assessment; Journal of Abnormal Psychology; Journal of Psychoanalytic Anthropology; Psychophysiology; Psychology and Human Development; Journal of Sex Research; Journal of Psychology and Judaism; Contemporary Family Therapy; American Journal on Addictions; Journal of Criminal Psychology; Mental Health, Religion, and Culture. 

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As Rosh Beis Medrash, Rabbi Avraham Kivelevitz serves as Rav and Posek for the morning minyan at IDT. Hundreds of listeners around the globe look forward to his weekly Shiur in Tshuvos and Poskim. 

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Rav Kivelevitz is a Maggid Shiur for Dirshu International in Talmud and Halacha as well as a Dayan with the Beth Din of America. 

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