mill• ■■ •• ■ 11 DETROIT

Seven reasons to shop
House of Watchbands.

B'nai B'rith, JFS Plan
Program On Child Abuse

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

I

t's a topic rarely discuss-
ed in the Jewish com-
munity or any commun-
ity. But the silence surroun-
ding the sexual abuse of
children is about to be
broken.
B'nai B'rith Women and
Jewish Family Service plan
a joint program at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 22 at Temple Beth El to
discuss incest and sexual
abuse within the Jewish
community. Keynote
speaker Susan Lasker, who
was abused as a child, will
show her film about sexual
abuse called Breaking Si-
lence.
Long interested in do-
mestic violence which in-
cludes child, spouse and el-
derly abuse, B'nai B'rith
Women's Council of
Metropolitan Detroit decid-
ed to get involved on the
local level, said Lucy
Gersten, chairman of the
East Central Region. B'nai
B'rith Women have domestic
shelters in Canada and
operate the Residential
Treatment Center in Israel
for emotionally disturbed
boys.
Mrs. Gersten spoke to
Sandra Jaffa, manager of
the Skillman program at
Jewish Family Service about
participating in a joint pro-
gram. Four years ago, with
funding from the Skillman
Foundation, JFS established
a family intervention pro-
gram to prevent child abuse.
When she first started
talking about the upcoming
program to people in the
community, Mrs. Gersten
admitted the reaction was
mixed.
"There was a lot of
resistance. People wanted to
know why this was being
done," she said. "There was
a feeling that people didn't
want to hear about this."
No one wants to think
about the possibility of a
Jewish man abusing his
family, especially when
Judaism emphasizes family
closeness, she said.
"When it does happen,
people are ashamed," Mrs.
Gersten said.
Yet, other people believe
the program is necessary.
"If in four days I heard
stories from four different
people, this has got to be
prevalent, more prevalent
than we can imagine," she
said. Mrs. Jaffa of JFS said
Jews tend to believe child

abuse and other forms of
domestic violence only occur
in other communities. She
said abuse crosses all socio-
economic lines and religious
beliefs.
In general, more than one
million children are abused
by their parents or guard-
ians, while violence occurs
in more than half of Ameri-
can homes. In the Jewish
community, almost one-
third of the families experi-
ence some kind of domestic
violence, Mrs. Jaffa said.
"We had no trouble fin-
ding abuse cases once we
began looking," Mrs. Jaffa
said.
Most of the Skillman pro-
gram clients are referred by
doctors, school officials and
JFS counselors who are al-
ready seeing the family for
other reasons, she said. Of
the 45 families currently
seeking treatment through
the Skillman program, 75
percent are Jewish, Mrs.
Jaffa said.
Treatment includes
various forms of therapy in-
cluding individual, group
and family sessions, she
said. In some cases, a vol-
unteer is sent into the home
to help the family cope with
the everyday struggles
which cause stress and may
set off an abusive act.
Both Mrs. Jaffa and Mrs.
Gersten hope the joint pro-
gram will also help prevent
domestic violence by
educating the Jewish com-
munity.
"The only way to treat
child abuse is to acknowl-
edge that it exists," Mrs.
Jaffa said.
In the past, rabbis and
other community leaders
have been reluctant to admit
domestic violence occurs in
the Jewish community, often
leaving the victims few
places to turn, Mrs. Jaffa
said. She hopes the program
will help lay leaders feel
more comfortable when
someone gets the courage to
talk about a sexual abuse
experience.
"We would like people not
to be so afraid to talk about
it," Mrs. Jaffa said. "We
want people to know there is
a safe place where they can
talk about it and that the
situation can be changed;
that it is not their fault and
they are not alone."

Mrs. Gersten hopes the
Oct. 22 program will change
the attitude that domestic
violence only happens to
other people. O

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 11

