NEW YORK
Arutz Sheva (Israel)
Yeshiva University (YU) is offering a new online course for rabbis to prepare them in dealing with a topic that many say does not receive enough attention in the religious world – child abuse.
The 12-week course on preventing child abuse is a joint offering by YU’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF), YU-affiliated Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center.
“Rabbis engage the issues relating to child abuse on multiple levels,” explained Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, Dean of the CJF. “They play a crucial role in educating the community regarding awareness and prevention, they contribute to setting policies in local institutions to prevent and address issues of child abuse and they are often on the front lines of guiding families through these extraordinarily difficult circumstances and counseling them through the complexities of the situation.”
Expanding on that point, Rabbi Naphtali Lavenda, director of online rabbinic programming at CJF, said “the rabbi is in a unique position. The rabbi has to be this Superman: he’s the first responder for all crises in the community and bears the weight of every person’s pain, suffering and troubles.”
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