Sunday, June 26, 2016

A call to action on child abuse

"One out of every 5 children in our community victimized" hard to believe!!!!
Yated-The Novominsker Rebbe, Rav Yaakov Perlow, issued a call for action in response to the festering scourge of child abuse and molestation. As a result of his seminal address at the recent Torah Umesorah convention, several groundbreaking initiatives have been launched to ensure that our children are safe at all times.

Torah Umesorah is preparing to train hundreds of principals, rabbeim and mechanchos across the country. This training will provide them with tools not only to prevent instances of child abuse and molestation from occurring within their schools, but also to recognize symptoms among students indicating that they may have been molested outside the school setting. (Statistics show that perpetrators are rarely strangers; generally, they are people the child knows and trusts.) The training program is slated to begin this fall.



In addition, a training program for thousands of summer-camp counselors is now being rolled out. The program, endorsed by Rav Elya Brudny, rosh yeshiva, Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn, will consist of short, animated video lessons, followed by quizzes. The quizzes will enable camp directors to ascertain that all counselors understand the dos and don’ts of relating to and protecting their charges, and that they are able to identify warning signs and respond appropriately. The counselor training program, endorsed also by Dr. David Pelcowitz and Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, will make summer camp the special, cherished experience that it should be. As Rabbi Perlow stated at the convention, “We must ensure that predators are not able to disturb our children; we have no sympathy for the perpetrators.”

These and other initiatives will generate increased awareness of the problem and greater sensitivity to warning symptoms, and will likely result in more people contacting trusted community organizations that specialize in addressing child abuse and molestation. “We are deeply sympathetic to the victims,” Rabbi Perlow said at the convention. Gedolei Yisroel are making this issue the highest priority.

“Our staff are already reporting a sharp increase in calls from community members looking for guidance and assistance,” said Rabbi Zvi Gluck, director of Amudim Community Resources. “We are now in the process of setting up a crisis line. The days of looking away, pretending that these problems don’t exist, or pushing them to the side, are behind us; we have to take a strong, positive stance to protect and empower our children.”

To assist victims of abuse and molestation, a group of concerned donors established a fund to subsidize trauma therapy. The fund, named ASAP, is currently assisting 250 victims, with new applications arriving daily.

With one out of every five children in our community likely to be victimized, this serious threat to our families has the potential to destroy generations. More initiatives are on the way, as the Torah community unites to combat this intolerable situation.
Yated.com

7 comments:

  1. That number one out of 5 seems very high TU just wake up now about this its not a new problem. Its all pandering to a rich supporter who made it his mission to deal with sexual abuse. This has created an atmosphere were every Rebbe is now a suspect. Disgusting!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Its more disgusting when the molester is THE REBBE or other close person to the victim.

      Delete
  2. From a friend who was at a retreat in Florida jokes were going around about Rebbeim as molesters. The conversation was all about the Rrebbeim you would expect better but when it comes to the almighty dollar Torah takes a back seat. The poor Rebbeinm who give up their life and devote it for the klal are now the suspects of molestation.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Mr. Mendy Klein from Cleveland publicly called it a magaifa in our community. IM sure numbers dont lie 1 in 5 would be a magaifa

    ReplyDelete
  4. But there is no truth in those numbers let him show statistics. Torah Umesorah all of a sudden cares? oh someone gave them alot of $$$$$. And Rabbi Pinny Lipshutz Yated editor is on the board of TU which would explain why all of a sudden his paper is covering the issue.

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2016/06/reform-jews-cheated-pew-survey.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. They are doing something, yes, but this is only ‘doing something’ AFTER THE FACT. It should not happen to begin with. Why not teach children to protect themselves from authority figures who step out of line; give children the ability to stand up for themselves and not get abused in the first place. Training those authority figures to look for symptoms is not enough and is “keeping it all in the family”. Children must learn how to approach their parents in these matters. This is not enough too late.

    ReplyDelete