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| Amudim head, Rabbi Tzvi Gluck (Arutz Sheva) |
…an organization dedicated to helping abuse victims and those suffering with addiction within the Jewish community.
Rabbi Gluck is a card carrying Charedi and his organization has support from Charedi leadership. There are unfortunately a lot of Charedim that are in need of the services Amudim provides. But thankfully help is now available to them via an organization that is particularly sensitive to their religious needs. Many Charedim have surely benefitted from their mental health services.
In what can only be termed a sharp rebuke of the Charedi leadership in Israel, Rabbi Gluck has expressed near outrage at a proposal by the Charedi political party, UTJ. Which is a program that would allow incompetence to permeate organizations like his. (Amudim actually has a branch in Israel.) Here is how Rabbi Gluck puts it an an Arutz Sheva oped:
The concept of a program allowing seminary girls to sidestep Israel's academic requirements and work in mental health is appalling.
If we have learned one thing over the last several years, it is that mental health issues must be taken as seriously as heart attacks and strokes, because much like medical emergencies, they too can have fatal consequences.
After years of sweeping mental health-related concerns under the figurative rug, the Jewish community is finally coming to terms with the fact that these issues are a matter of pikuach nefesh…
…just as doctors undergo years of schooling in order to be able to practice medicine, mental health professionals must also be required to received considerable amounts of rigorous training, because they too provide life-saving care...
Which means that a proposal introduced in the Knesset to create a streamlined program to credential seminary girls as therapists through the arts should have alarm bells ringing in the mind of any intelligent individual…
The concept of crafting a program that would allow seminary girls to sidestep Israel’s existing academic requirements was introduced by the United Torah Judaism party last summer.
Why is UTJ doing this? Because their community needs to make good jobs available to the typical Charedi woman that has become the chief bread winner for her family. So that their husbands can continue full time Torah study without worrying about how to feed them. What about the compromised health services that this program would result in?
Apparently Charedi leaders do not understand how damaging this program might be to those who require competent mental health professionals. Or worse - they feel it is worth the tradeoff giving up the well being of abuse victims - so that a lifestyle of full time Torah study for men can be sustained.
Rabbi Gluck is appalled at this development. Rightfully so. In essence condemning what he sees as the Charedi establishment’s priorities. Sure – good jobs are important. But as Rabbi Gluck asks, ‘At what price?’
If the Charedi leadership in Israel wants their young women to pursue a career in mental health they need to encouraged to get the training required to do the job right. And attend existing programs where real training can be obtained. Not the program of ‘shortcuts’ suggested by UTJ.
How strong is Rabbi Gluck’s outrage? A letter opposing this new program was sent to the K’nesset by 14 licensed Israeli mental health professionals. Here is what Rabbi Gluck said about it:
Perhaps most importantly, the therapists voiced their strong objections to the fact that key areas of study would be censored out of the curriculum because they would be deemed inappropriate for seminary girls...
…the notion of mental health professionals who have had no training in sexual abuse is so bizarre that it would almost be laughable, if it wasn’t so disturbing, particularly since it would result in having significant numbers of unqualified practitioners working with children, our most vulnerable population.
Telling it like it is! Thank you Rabbi Gluck. And welcome to the ‘club’.