Getting to Know You: Dr. Rochelle Harary
“When someone cries, put out your hand.”
This motto may sound straight-forward and not entirely unexpected from a mental health professional, however these words not only have a very special meaning to one of LIHSA’s newest staff members, but they will to you too as you continue reading.
Though new to LIHSA this year as the School’s Psychologist, Dr. Rochelle Harary has been working in this role at different schools in the Nassau BOCES system for nearly twenty years. She began her career on a very different path – she spent many years as an Accountant on Wall Street. Taking a pause when she got married and had her three children, she decided to go back to school for her Doctorate of Education and dedicate the next phase of her career to helping people.
The concept of helping others has been a core value to Dr. Harary from her upbringing. She is the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. Her parents were teens who miraculously did not perish in the concentration camps, and they raised their daughter to always be grateful for not just what she has in life, but for life itself.
Dr. Harary’s mother shared a story with her daughter about a time when she was 14 years old in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The imprisoned girls were forced to line-up. The first in line was shot and thrown into a grave in the ground. The second in line was thrown into the grave with the intention of being buried alive. Her mother was second in line and was, indeed, thrown down into the grave. She cried and called out and another girl heard her cries, stepped out of line, extended her hand, and pulled Dr. Harary’s mother out. It was from this story that Dr. Harary found these words to live by:
“When someone cries, put out your hand.”
Dr. Harary not only embodies this motto every day in her work, but also shares it with the students she counsels. She feels that even when someone is having their own mental health challenges, they will feel better by helping others. She challenges everyone to think about who they have helped today.
When Dr. Harary is not at LIHSA, she remains busy as a sought-out lecturer and as a grandmother to fifteen grandchildren who live all over the world.
Please be sure to get to know Dr. Harary now that she’s part of our LIHSA world.
