Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Prevention Is The Key . . . Learning to Listen to Our Children

It's not uncommon to teach our children that if they have problems, that they can always go to their rabbis for help. The problem is that there are a few individuals who become rabbis who have sexually abused or assaulted our children.

We need to come up with a plan in how to address these issues. We need to stop believing it is taboo to discuss these issues.

We need to address ways we can safely teach our children what to do if they feel violated.

We need to teach our children to keep telling adults they know if something has happened, especially if the first adult doesn't listen or believe them.

If your child came to you and told you they were touched inappropriately, would you believe them? What if the person your child is accusing of sexual misconduct is someone you highly respect?

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

While I completely agree with this post, I think that Jews need to realize that there are a GLUT of really bad rabbis. I don't mean that the rabbis are necessarily offenders, but we found that the rabbis in our community didn't believe that frum people actually commit sexual abuse. Like it doesn't happen in Jewish communities. Yeah, right.

January 13, 2005 7:04 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's not just frum people who are in denial. The same thing happened to me. I used to be involved with a Reform Temple. It was the Temple my Grandparents and parents belonged to. Today I wouldn't even step inside one. I feel like everyone who does is a hypocrite or at least I would be, if I went back.

January 13, 2005 8:15 AM  

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