NEW YORK
Arutz Sheva (Israel)
By Tova Dvorin
First Publish: 9/18/2014
One thousand Orthodox Jews crowded into a Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY hall Monday evening for a noble purpose: to raise awareness of, and educate themselves about, child sexual abuse – an issue all too often avoided as taboo within some circles.
The highly charged event served as an opportunity to show support to victims of abuse, to educate the public about the dangers of abuse and to present the relaunch of Jewish Community Watch (JCW), a watchdog group monitoring abuse in the global Jewish community.
Survivors (JCW makes a point of rejecting the term “victim”), Rabbis, politicians, mental health professionals and others repeated a dual message: that the Orthodox Jewish community will no longer sweep abuse under the rug, and that survivors who step forward will be embraced. Campaigners lament that all too often victims of abuse are urged not to turn to the police but to allow rabbis to deal with the crimes “within the community” – but a growing number of leading rabbis and communal figures are publicly rejecting such an approach and calling on victims to report such crimes immediately to the relevant authorities. JCW’s work has certainly contributed towards that change in attitudes.
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Tompson as well as Deputy District Attorney Benny Forer, founder of Lamplighters Yeshiva, Yocheved Sidoff, marriage and family therapist Chaim Drizin and abuse survivor Meira Bookman also addressed the crowd.
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