In the first weeks after October 7, artists rushed to help. They sang at funerals, performed for evacuees, painted murals of unity, wrote poems of mourning and hope. They gave a grieving nation something to hold onto when words failed.
But months later, many of those same voices went quiet.
Some could no longer perform. Others turned inward. A few disappeared from the stage altogether.
Mental Health First Aid Israel calls this phenomenon the echo of creation — the emotional collapse that can follow intense artistic giving in the aftermath of collective trauma. Within that silence lies a growing suicide risk few are willing to name.
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