Jewish Contributions to Humanity

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“We know we can’t wipe out the
phenomenon of sexual abuse, but we
can help our community become one
where every survivor knows they are
supported, and every abuser knows they
will be held accountable.”

Making lifesaving
discoveries was in
their blood.

— SHANA AARONSON

to tell anyone, so we
went on our own to a
pharmacy to buy a preg-
nancy test.
“Our biggest fear at
the time was that some-
one would notice young religious girls
buying a pregnancy test and we would
get in trouble. I understood even then
that something was very, very wrong
with that scenario.”
She became aware of similar situa-
tions in the community. “I knew that
there was an issue of sexual abuse of
Orthodox kids, even though I didn’t
have the language or full grasp of it
yet,” she said.
Aaronson earned a degree in
psychology from the University of
Phoenix. She has worked for Tzofiah,
a boarding school for adolescent girls
who experienced childhood trauma,
and Magen Child Protective Services.
Both are run by Orthodox Jews and
serve primarily Orthodox children
and youth.
In 2015, Aaronson was recruited
to Jewish Community Watch (JCW),
whose mission is to protect children
from sexual abuse, educate the com-
munity, and advocate for and support
victims.
JCW’s founder, Meyer Seewald of
Brooklyn, started JWC in 2011 after
learning that the father of his best
friend, who had killed himself five
years earlier, was molesting boys in a
youth group he had started in memo-
ry of his son. Seewald set up a website
to expose the abuser and soon started
receiving reports of similar situations
from Jewish communities around the
world.
JCW’s website prominently features
a “Wall of Shame” identifying more
than 150 men accused (and often con-
victed) of sexual abuse. One of them is
Matthew Kuppe of West Bloomfield, a
former Jewish Community Center Day
Camps counselor who was sentenced
last year to a 10-year prison term for
filming young boys in a locker room
and posting their nude photos on a
Russian website.

JCW recruited
Aaronson in 2015 as
services coordinator for
Israel. She was promoted
to COO a year ago. She
has many administra-
tive duties but likes to spend as much
time as she can speaking to survivors,
interviewing people involved in cases,
working with the police and going to
court on victims’ behalf.

A “CULTURE SHIFT”

Aaronson said there was a lot of
resistance to JCW within the ultra-
Orthodox community at first but
feels a “culture shift” on the prob-
lem of child sexual abuse is gaining
momentum.
“Today there are still many that
oppose a lot of what we do, and
still believe that sexual abuse is a
problem that should be dealt with
‘internally’ and ‘quietly,’” she said.
“Thankfully, that’s becoming more
of a minority view as people are
increasingly understanding the ter-
rible damage that child sexual abuse
causes.”
JCW now has offices in Miami,
Brooklyn and Israel, and is looking to
expand into Europe.
“We know we can’t wipe out the
phenomenon of sexual abuse, but we
can help our community become one
where survivors know they are sup-
ported, and abusers know they will
be held accountable,” Aaronson said.
“Our goal is to provide every support
possible to every survivor who needs
it, in every Jewish community all over
the world.”
She has enjoyed the response to
her inclusion on the list of “extraor-
dinary” woman of Israel. “It’s been
an honor to connect with some of
the other women on the list who
are doing really incredible work in
Israel,” she said. •

To learn more about Jewish Community
Watch, go to jewishcommunitywatch.org.
Materials there include videos and other edu-
cational material.

PAUL EHRLICH (1845-1915).
b. Silesia. d. Bad Homburg, Hesse, Germany.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1908.
The ‘magic bullet.’
Working in the lab of his cousin—pathologist Carl Wei-
gert—Paul Ehrlich discovered that certain dyes react differ-
ently with different cells and tissues, and that dyes could help
scientists identify and distinguish different cells under a mi-
croscope with the use of a certain dye. With physiologist Emil
Behring, Ehrlich developed an antiserum (a drug that triggers
an immune response to a disease) for treating diphtheria, and created the first standard-
ized protocol for the production of antiserums. In 1908, Ehrlich shared a Nobel Prize with
Elie Metchnikoff for their work on immunology, which included Ehrlich’s breakthroughs with
antiserums and his “side chain theory,” which created a theoretical explanation for how
the body creates immunity to toxins. As part of this theory, Ehrlich coined the term “magic
bullet,” which refers to an immunological compound that can target a specific toxin without
significantly harming surrounding cells and tissues. In 1907 Ehrlich created compound 606,
also known as Salvarsan, which was the primary worldwide treatment for syphilis until peni-
cillin’s advent in the 1940s. Salvarsan was very much part of Ehrlich’s quest for “magic bul-
let” drugs that would crush the disease without crippling its host. It was this specific quest
that is now credited with launching the field of chemotherapy.

KARL LANDSTEINER (1868-1943).
b. Vienna, Austria. d. New York City.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1930.
First polio, and then blood types.
As a pathologist in Vienna, Karl Landsteiner, along with phy-
sician Erwin Popper, isolated the polio virus, a groundbreaking
discovery that eventually culminated in Jonas Salk’s discovery of
a vaccine for the disease. Remarkably, though, it wasn’t this for
which Landsteiner received his Nobel Prize, but his discovery of
the four different blood types (A, B, AB and O) that Landsteiner
had his most lasting impact on medicine. As the “father of trans-
fusion medicine,” it was Landsteiner who discovered that, due to different immunological
responses of antibodies, people with type AB blood are universal recipients and people
with type O blood are universal donors. In effect, Landsteiner turned blood transfusions—a
regular and crucial occurrence in hospitals—into a safe and predictable treatment.

SELMAN WAKSMAN (1888-1973).
b. Priluki, Russia. d, Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1952.
A father of antibiotics.

As a biochemist at Rutgers University, Selman Waksman
and his team coined the term “antibiotic” and proceeded to
create many lifesaving ones, most notably streptomycin, which
was the first effective treatment for tuberculosis and is consid-
ered to be among a handful of basic medicines considered
necessary in any society. He won the Nobel Prize for discov-
ering streptomycin in 1952. A year earlier Waksman used his
royalties from patents to create the Foundation for Microbiology, which funds microbiology
research. Using funds from that foundation, Waksman also created the Institute of Microbi-
ology at Rutgers, now called the Waksman Institute of Microbiology.

Original Research by Walter L. Field Sponsored by Irwin S. Field Written by Jared Sichel

jn

May 31 • 2018

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