A Letter from JACS

From a letter to Rabbi Weinreb from the President and Vice President of JACS (Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons and their Significant Others):

Dear Rabbi Weinreb:

On behalf of the thousands of our JACS (Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically dependent persons and their Significant others) members and friends, the JACS Council applauds the Orthodox Union's timely and courageous decision to call for the elimination of Kiddush Clubs in its congregations.

Our synagogues and community centers should be the last places in the world for us to enable and encourage excessive alcohol use. At JACS retreats and meetings, we have heard too many of our members share how Kiddush Clubs helped them rationalize their drinking and turn their backs on opportunities for recovery.

And adult drinking does just as much damage indirectly by idealizing, in our children’s eyes, the use of alcohol. The JACS Teen Network is at the forefront of dealing with the ever-growing plague of drug addiction and binge drinking among Jewish teenagers. Each year, we help over a thousand Jewish youth through prevention education, early intervention, crisis response and recovery support services. We have learned, time and again, from teenaged addicts one core fact: For many Jewish men, alcohol is nothing less than their personal addictive drug of choice. Our kids know this and sometimes, God forbid, therefore feel free to use drugs of their own choosing, arguing that they are “just doing the same thing my parents do.”

By recognizing the threat that alcohol and other drug abuse poses to the Jewish community and your willingness to take action by encouraging the elimination of Kiddush Clubs, the OU is to be greatly commended for having a very constructive impact on this life-threatening problem.

Sincerely,

www.ou.org