alone in a non-public space with a
child or teen.
At this year's convention of the
North American Alliance of Jewish
Youth Professionals, about 40 people
— or about 15 percent of partici-
pants — attended a session on sexu-
al ethics and proper staff conduct,
said Doron Krakow, chair of the
organization.
"There's been a heightened sensitiv-
ity," said Krakow, who is also national
director of Young Judaea, which runs
year-round youth groups, summer
camps and Israel programs.
Young Judaea, like other youth
groups, has dealt with a handful of
complaints and "every allegation
results in full investigation on our
part and typically includes tempo-
rary suspension of activity on the
part of the staff person until we've
cleared up the matter," said Krakow.
Greater Awareness
Krakow and other youth profession-
als note that there has been far
greater awareness of such matters in
the past decade.
"In my early years with BBYO, I
was not worried about hugging 'a
youngster or having a youngster
alone in a room with me while we
were planning programs," said Al
Freedman, who is director of special
projects for BBYO and has been
with the organization for 33 years.
"Never would I do that now," he
added. "We always make sure that
whatever we do, we do in public or
the Atlanta Jewish Times earned first-
place awards for excellence in news
reporting, personality profiles and
overall graphic design; second-place
honors for excellence in feature writ-
ing; and an honorable mention for
excellence in arts and criticism news
and features.
"We're pleased that our work con-
tinues to be honored nationally for its
quality and content," said Jewish
Renaissance Media President Arthur
M. Horwitz. Jewish Renaissance
Media is the publisher of the Detroit
Jewish News and Atlanta Jewish Times.
"While our focus is on meeting the
needs of our readers, it's nice that the
American Jewish Press Association and
its judges provide recognition for our
hard-working staff" II
.
.
in the company of other people so
we don't place ourselves in a situa-
tion where we can be accused."
Freedman said that while BBYO
has never heard complaints about its
professional staff, there have been
"questions raised" about some of the
group's volunteer advisers.
"We never disregard such an alert,"
he said. "We've never to my knowl-
edge had an incident that's been sexual
abuse, but we have had incidents
where, after talking to the adviser, we
felt it would be best if they resigned."
Those cases involved inappropriate
comments, gestures and "touchy-feely"
behavior, said Freedman.
Avoiding Risks
Officials with the UAHC said there
have been 5-10 complaints in the
past 20 years, all of which were dealt
with promptly and internally.
Allan Smith, director of the
UAHC's youth division, said that
every couple of years we've been
forced to take action of a very seri-
ous nature relative to either local or
regional youth workers or camp
workers."
The UAHC conducts police
checks of all staff hired to work with
youth and asks about potential prob-
lems when checking references. "If
there seems to be anything in some-
one's background, we're reluctant to
risk putting a youngster in harm's
way," said Smith.
Jules Gutin, national director of
USY, said he knew of no complaints
in USY, but that the group decided
four years ago to set clear policies in
writing anyway.
In Orthodox organizations, poli-
cies are less clear-cut.
Aliza Karp, a spokeswoman for
Tzivos Hashem, a Lubavitch youth
organization, said that she knew of
no problems occurring but that "we
choose staff who are aware of
boundaries and have a reputation for
not crossing them." She added that
by promoting "strong values of what
is right and what is wrong" and
maintaining "open lines of commu-
nication," her organization hopes "to
keep children out of danger."
Rabbi Avi Shafran, a spokesman
for the Agudath Israel of America,
which runs separate youth move-
ments for girls and boys, said he
didn't know of any such problems in
his organization and hopes that the
group's religious policy of separating
the sexes would protect youth from
unwanted contact. •
"
DHARLENE NORRIS
May Employee of the Month
C
ongratulations to Dharlene Norris, who was chosen as the
May, 2000 employee of the month. Dharlene has been a
very familiar face at the Jewish News since May of 1976! For
many of those years, she has assisted countless charitable organ-
izations get their advertising messages into the Jewish News.
"Dharlene brings a helpful hand and an experienced eye to her
work. Community organizations appreciate her knowledge and
sense of history," said publisher Arthur Horwitz.
Dharlene is one of the reasons the Jewish News is one of
America's and Michigan's most admired weekly papers.
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