Standing Up To Drugs Monday, January 31 Jews are as prone to substance
abuse as the general community in America. It’s something that American
Jewry must come to grips with. The Talmud elevates healing of the vulnerable and sick to a mitzvah. People caught in the vice of misusing alcohol, drugs or even food clearly have a disease that yearns for treatment, not ridicule. The number of relatives and friends who feel the sharp-edged effects of an addict is no doubt high in the Jewish community, where relationships play such a crucial role. Kids who have a dysfunctional parent may become pawns in a game of deception. Or they may take the blame for parental transgression and cope by becoming a chemical abuser, too. Passage of such self-destructive behavior from one generation to the next is the antithesis of Jewish continuity. Substance abuse is a clear-cut
sin. Yet Jewish kids do it. It could be because of parental example, peer
pressure or societal influences. Sixty-five rabbis and other Orthodox educators met because of this trend, but know the action plan they ultimately prepare will reverberate across the streams of Judaism. Outreach and treatment professionals also took part. I hope the action plan taps into what kids and parents, not just rabbis and professionals, think will work. I applaud the OU for recognizing that synagogues and schools share a commitment to nurturing troubled youth. One trigger for the meeting was the late 2004 arrest of 42 students, including many yeshivah teens, for allegedly possessing drugs and consuming alcohol at an unsupervised house party in Livingston, N.J., reports the New York Jewish Week. The red flags of liquor, drugs,
tobacco, promiscuity and eating disorders like anorexia fly everywhere,
even in the sheltered world of Orthodoxy. “We as a community can sweep this behavior under the rug,” said OU Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, “or we can acknowledge it and respond to it. We have chosen to respond.” Rabbi Weinreb, the OU’s new
executive vice president, also is a clinical psychologist. His rabbinic
and clinical background gives him keen insight. Torah is at the heart of what
Jewish kids learn, no matter what level of religious education they
receive. Still, outside conditions either creep or flow in to each of
their lives, depending on how attentive their parents are. Echoes In Detroit “What we as parents and as a community can do is to try to keep our children from experimenting with drugs and other self-defeating behavior,” he said. “In that, some families and communities are more successful than others.” I looked to Rabbi Shemtov because I respect the exceptional work the Friendship Circle has done since 1994 in saving Jewish kids from the quicksand of chemical experimentation and dependency by engaging them in wholesome and uplifting programs. He knows the best defense is keeping kids from experimenting. For those who make the dive, clinical addiction in all its shades becomes the great enticer. “All we can do then,” Rabbi
Shemtov said, “is set up a support system that will help them in the
lifelong journey of recovering from their addiction.” Jews face the double denial of the Jewish community denying it has a substance abuse problem and Jewish addicts denying their abuse because they fear shame and guilt. The reality is that Jewish teens right in your neighborhood may depend on drugs. “When I tell friends that I know kids as young as 18 who are addicted to heroin and live in their subdivision, be it in Southfield, West Bloomfield or Oak Park, they just don’t believe me,” said Rabbi Yisrael Pinson, who directs the Friendship House, a division of the Friendship Circle. Knowledge pays. It enables rabbis and clinicians trained in combating addiction to work with kids as well as parents, schools and synagogues. The key is to do so in a way that’s supportive, life changing and non-judgmental. Downplaying the impact of a deeply
rooted communal ill isn’t just dumb; it also can be deadly. Kiddush Clubs and the Sanctity of the Synagogue | www.ou.org |