The Right Move

Wall of Shame (JCW)

A few weeks ago the suicide of a 24 year old convicted sex offender was reported in the news. What makes this significant to me is that he was an Orthodox Jew, and that I know his family. The news of both his suicide and being exposed as a sex offender was shocking. I did not know the young man personally. But considering the family he came from I was taken aback by this news. I guess the personal demons that cause people to do evil things are not always the fault of family dysfunction. His family was not dysfunctional to the best of my knowledge.

During September of 2014, despite just 5 days’ notice, a large crowd of parents, educators and abuse survivors from the Miami Jewish community gathered in Miami Beach for an emotionally charged evening to raise awareness for child sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish community and learn what Jewish Community Watch (JCW) is doing to combat it.

The crowd heard from rabbis, survivors and therapists. By the end of the evening, which many described as ‘raw’, ‘vulnerable’ and ‘emotional’, over a dozen victims of child sexual abuse stood up and publicly acknowledged their abuse - some for the very first time.

 JCW will be holding a second event here in South Florida to further its goal of educating parents, preventing child sexual abuse (CSA), assisting survivors and breaking the silence and shame that surrounds CSA in the Orthodox Jewish community…

 (Founder and CEO of JCW Meyer) Seewald… stated “Unfortunately, along with the epidemic of abuse, there is this epidemic of silence amongst many of our community leaders. The event last year in Miami was really a turning point in the battle against abuse and showed what we can do when we get together as a community to put an end to this evil. We are returning to the Miami area to build on the momentum created by the previous event and to reach additional parents and survivors.”

The day after last event, JCW received the following message from an attendee: “Last night’s event was probably the most important event I’ve ever been to. The honesty, rawness, humanity and bravery that was shown by every single speaker and survivor affected me so deeply I really can’t describe it.

Eli, Meyer, and Baruch–who were so courageous in sharing their stories just saved countless lives. I have never been prouder to be Jewish than I was last night, when we all stood together and sent a message to the abusers and cowardly murderers that they will never again be free to lay a hand on anyone with the help of JCW.”