Between 2013 and 2016, the Board of Rabbis of Northern California, Jewish Learning Works and the Educators Council, Shalom Bayit, Bay Area Jewish Healing Center and Bay Area Temple Administrators engaged the Beyond Silence Campaign to generate and sustain a community wide response to abuse and to raise consciousness about the prevention and reporting of child sexual abuse and related types of abuse. These are resources gathered during that campaign:
Child abuse reporting
Contacts for support
Jewish LearningWorks: Recommended Readings for adults and children
If you teach or serve as clergy, you may be a mandated reporter of abuse.
Our campaign’s two initial efforts included:
a series of educational messages written by clergy and experts in the field and published in the Jewish News Weekly of Northern California. View these communications which address the nature of child sexual abuse, reporting and healing, as well as psychological and ethical perspectives;
and the convening of a 2015 professional development day for clergy, educators and other Jewish professionals and lay leaders to deepen their understanding and develop and hone their skills about preventing and responding to child sexual abuse. The development day was help on November 18, 2015. Click here to view the development day schedule.
The Impetus for Creating the Campaign
In October 2013, the son of a well-known Jewish summer camp and youth leader publicly disclosed that he and others had years ago been the victims of sexual abuse perpetrated by his own, then deceased, father. The disclosure sparked a painful public debate in the Jewish community that was particularly difficult for adults who had been part of that summer camp and youth program during their childhoods. Questions of accountability, organizational policies and protocols, and the role of Jewish institutions in preventing and responding to abuse were brought to the forefront by these revelations.
Note regarding Ads, Op Eds, Articles and Resources
The Board of Rabbis of Northern California, Jewish LearningWorks, Shalom Bayit, Bay Area Jewish Healing Center and Bay Area Temple Administrators did not verify any of the representations, information or local or national resources contained in the Beyond Silence ads nor in the articles or op eds published in the media or on websites, nor in the resources listed on the various resources page, nor on the recommended books page. Rabbi Pam Frydman and the organizations listed at the beginning of this paragraph do not endorse or recommend any of the advice or services listed.