ByLIANE GRUNBERG WAKABAYASHI

JUNE 20, 2026 07:54

The well-known line from psychiatrist Viktor Frankl about having a purpose to endure any circumstance has taken on fresh significance lately.

Jerusalem writer Rachel Goldberg-Polin highlighted it while advocating for hostages after her son Hersh was seized by Hamas on Oct. 7. She became a prominent voice calling for their freedom during the long ordeal.

In her book When We See You Again, Goldberg-Polin shared with journalist Anderson Cooper how Hersh, killed at age 23 while held captive, drew inspiration from Frankl's Holocaust memoir Man's Search for Meaning, especially the Nietzsche-inspired quote on finding a why to live.

Drawn to the quote's ongoing power and its underlying ideas, the Magazine visited Modi'in to speak with two top Israeli practitioners of logotherapy, Frankl's approach centered on meaning in life and mental health.

The talks covered the quote's roots and its strong appeal amid current challenges.

When standard psychology falls short

Batya Yaniger, PsyD, who founded the Viktor Frankl Institute in Israel in 2009 after growing up in Chicago, offers detailed training and certification locally and globally. She met with her teacher, Dr. Teria Shantall, a South African psychologist who moved to Israel in 1999, at a welcoming home setting.

Shantall trained under Frankl himself, focused her dissertation on meaning amid suffering for Holocaust survivors, and has taught and written on logotherapy for over fifty years.

Shantall noted that everyone seeks to understand existence and live for a purpose while feeling they add value. Frankl termed this the will to meaning, which would not exist without actual meaning available.

Praising the civil report's main writer

Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning showed both extremes of human actions from his time in Nazi camps.

Yaniger explained that staying human amid cruelty means using the moment to become more humane.

Shantall clarified it happens despite the hardship rather than due to it.

Discussion turned to the report on Hamas sexual crimes, released nearby by the Civil Commission in Modi'in.

Shantall described these acts as especially harmful since they strike at core dignity, reducing someone to an object for use and discard.

Recovery starts as victims regain their humanity and others, such as Civil Commission members, choose not to ignore the facts.

Yaniger called Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the report's lead author, a model of responsibility by facing the accounts voluntarily to support something greater, acting as a witness in line with logotherapy's focus on meaningful commitment to improve the world.

A mindset for living

Logotherapy functions as a practical method but mainly serves as a life outlook and self-view. When feeling victimized with no clear direction, it shows the ongoing choice of attitude and creating something positive from the situation.

Yaniger noted how suffering often leads to self-focus, a key point in her institute training sessions.

She described the move from self-concern to seeing one's role in a larger meaningful picture, which begins in class. Students view it as more than a course, forming connections like a community that fosters purposeful living and influences their work with clients and others.

Shantall added that Frankl stressed retaining attitude choice even without physical freedom.

Logotherapy in action beyond quotes

Yaniger expressed some concern that many know Frankl quotes without grasping logotherapy's therapeutic uses. Those captives who grew meaningfully from their ordeals showed human strength at its peak.

They embodied Frankl's tragic optimism by turning hardship into gain, a process logotherapy aids.

Progress takes time. Shantall said healing often starts in quiet, as people may hesitate to share at first and need trust to open up, making it a gradual journey.

On Goldberg-Polin's public sharing of her pain and loss, Shantall commended her approach.

She noted the value in allowing full grief rather than rushing past it, as logotherapy sees anguish as natural and invites clients to address it directly.

A Makor Rishon piece noted rising sales of Frankl's book since Oct. 7, showing its continued relevance from its quiet German release in 1946 to wider English success in 1959.

The book has returned to Israeli bestseller lists and pairs with hassidic writings for trauma support.

Yaniger pointed out that both hassidic texts and Frankl stress living with meaning over pleasure or power alone. People seek hassidism to make Torah ideas vivid and grasp human nature better.

Frankl avoided public religious ties yet kept private Jewish prayers and valued the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Accounts from Chabad recall the Rebbe urging him to trust his meaning-based psychology when Freud and Adler ideas prevailed.

Frankl stayed committed to logotherapy, gaining global notice including from a Jerusalem mother whose son applied its ideas in captivity.

Yaniger observed that logotherapy aligns with Jewish and hassidic views more than other psychologies due to shared emphasis on human worth and meaningful values, rather than religious focus.