Around five
years ago,
Rabbi Yehuda
Silman, a
dayan
(rabbinical
court judge)
in Bnei Brak
court,
approached
Doron Agasi,
a religious
social
worker, and
asked for
assistance
in dealing
with sex
offenders.
The request
seemed like
a call for
help and
Agasi, the
principal of
a boarding
school for
children-at-risk
in Bnei Brak
was
acquainted
with the
problem
first-hand.
He proposed
treating the
offenders.
He recalled
the youth
probation
office's
success with
group
therapy,
which was
offered as
an
alternative
to
imprisonment
to youths
who were sex
offenders.
The proposal
fell on open
ears. The
principle
behind this
method -
that
offenders
are not
removed from
the
community,
that is,
sent to
jail, and no
police file
on them is
opened -
seemed like
a solution
that the
ultra-Orthodox
leadership
could live
with in
peace.
That is how,
with the
full backing
of rabbis,
Agasi
founded the
Shlom
Banayich
(welfare of
your sons)
association
for
children-at-risk.
Behind the
somewhat
vague name
stood the
first
clear-cut
social
program to
expose the
dimensions
of sex
offenses in
the
ultra-Orthodox
sector and
treat it.
Violence
against a
sexual
backdrop
raises
unbearable
questions in
a society
that prides
itself on
its moral
superiority.
It seems
that a
professional
like Agasi,
who belongs
to the
Hardal
(abbreviation
for
Haredi-Leumi,
or
ultra-Orthodox
nationalist)
stream and
is
well-acquainted
with the
ultra-Orthodox
and secular
worlds, was
needed in
order to
achieve a
breakthrough.
With his
yeshiva-student
like
appearance -
without the
sneakers and
the large
crochet
skullcap -
he might
have looked
like an
average
ultra-Orthodox
man, and his
sensitivity
generated a
lot of
trust. He
basically
worked as an
intermediary
between the
ultra-Orthodox
community
and Dr.
Talia Etgar,
an expert in
treating sex
offenders at
the Elem
Association
for at-risk
youth.
Last week
saw the end
of the first
course of
its kind -
for
ultra-Orthodox
therapists -
in group
therapy for
offenders.
The course
was the
initiative
of Shlom
Banayich in
collaboration
with Elem.
The
association
with Elem
came about
after five
years of
fruitless
contacts
with the
Probation
Service and
endless
entanglements
in the
bureaucracy
of the
Ministry of
Labor and
Social
Affairs.
Half of the
funding for
the course
was finally
obtained
from a
contribution
(from the
high-tech
company,
Check
Point); the
Ministry of
Labor and
Social
Affairs
agreed to
fill in the
rest.
Thirteen
therapists
took the
six-month
course. Soon
they will
begin their
practical
work: every
pair of
therapists
will spend a
year and a
half working
with a group
of five
boys. The
treatment is
based on
having the
offender
confront his
responsibility
and
educating
him about
sexual
behavior
that is
appropriate
to the codes
of
ultra-Orthodox
society. The
group
framework is
meant to
provide
support and
teach the
participants
to have
mutual
respect for
others.
The
potential
participants
in the group
are
ultra-Orthodox
boys who are
being
monitored by
the Youth
Probation
Service or
those who
are not
obligated to
check in
with a
probation
officer
(cases that
are not
included for
various
reasons in
Amendment 26
of the
criminal
code).
Working with
them is
dependent on
the
cooperation
of the
welfare
officer and
the rabbis.
Every case
is first
reviewed by
Elem's
Center for
Sexual
Violence and
then
undergoes a
risk
evaluation,
after which
the boys are
divided into
groups.
The
deterrent
factor,
according to
Agasi, is
the
alternative:
the boys
know that if
they don't
take part in
the group, a
police file
on them will
be opened
and they
will be sent
to jail.
"Sex
offenses
exist in
every
society,"
says Dr.
Talia Etgar,
"and
ultra-Orthodox
society is
no
different."
According to
her, there
is no data
on the scale
of the
phenomenon
because only
a few causes
are reported
to the
police. This
is one of
the
difficulties
in dealing
with the
problem.
According to
her, experts
today
attribute
considerable
importance
to the
culture from
which the
offender
comes, and
therefore
separate
groups have
opened for
Russians,
Arabs and
the
ultra-Orthodox.
The language
of treatment
and the
offender's
world vary
from one
culture to
another.
Therefore,
one of the
first things
the course
did was to
translate
the lexicon
of
terminology
Etgar offers
into
language
that is
common in
the
ultra-Orthodox
world. "At
first, I
didn't
understand
[what the
reference
was] when a
patient told
me that 'he
touches the
brit [sex
organ -
T.R.], or
what 'doing
it for
nothing'
[masturbation
- T.R.]
meant," says
Dr. Yehuda
Bergman, one
of the
participants.
According to
Agasi, there
are
frameworks
for treating
victims of
sex offenses
in
ultra-Orthodox
society, but
it was also
necessary to
treat the
offenders.
With them,
simple logic
is used: the
treatment
aims to
prevent a
recurrence
of the
problem.
Moreover,
the research
shows that
most
offenders
were
themselves
victims.
"The
offenders
will
continue to
enlarge the
circle of
attacks as
they mature
and if we
can stop
them now, we
have spared
victims,"
says Agasi.
Blaming
victims
For a long
time,
ultra-Orthodox
society made
sure to
protect
offenders at
the expense
of the
victims, who
often were
blamed for
the offense
happening.
Pedophiles
were dealt
with using
traditional
methods:
house arrest
in the home
of the rabbi
or in a
yeshiva,
being sent
away, with a
divorce or
to a yeshiva
abroad, or
threats of
violence
from the
modesty
patrols.
When
ultra-Orthodox
society
started
opening up
to the
possibility
of
psychological
treatment,
it seemed
like a good
solution.
And yet,
according to
Dr. Amram
Gafni, a
psychiatrist
who took the
course, the
social
tendency is
to turn the
offender
into a
"psychiatric
case" in
order to
reduce the
severity of
the action
and of the
punishment.
The
willingness
today to
recognize
sex offenses
and treat
them is
indicative
of the size
of the
phenomenon,
the three
therapists
agreed.
According to
them, the
walls around
ultra-Orthodox
society have
cracks in
them. In
their
perception,
the sexual
permissiveness
outside is
seeping in
and
influencing
the
ultra-Orthodox
sector and
prompting
sexual
assaults.
They prefer
to blame the
phenomenon
on the
society
around them
and not to
do some
soul-searching
of their
own.
Accessibility
to the
Internet and
pornographic
content is
also
stirring, in
their
opinion, the
offender's
dormant
potential.
Bergman
thinks that
it is
impossible
to control
exposure to
the
Internet,
which has
infiltrated
"even into
Me'ah
Shearim."
"Once an
adolescent
was not
exposed to
nudity. It
was possible
to restrict
or watch
over. Today
this is
almost
impossible."
Agasi
explains
that in such
a closed
society
there is
withholding
of sexual
stimulation
and
therefore
the level of
frustration
grows and
paves the
way to sex
offenses.
The head of
a yeshiva
for children
at-risk, who
created the
Lev Shome'a
(attentive
heart)
hotline for
treating
youths, and
is very
involved in
Shlom
Banayich,
makes a
problematic
claim
implying
that foreign
workers are
the ones
spreading
pornography.
Etgar is
more
cautious
when
discussing
the causes
for the
outbreak of
sexual
offenses.
"The world
is full of
temptations,
and still
some people
attack and
some don't.
It differs a
lot from one
boy to the
next, there
are some for
whom
exposure to
pornographic
content
causes
trauma and
others for
whom it
doesn't."
Agasi says
that
ultra-Orthodox
society
realized
that it had
a problem
and that the
traditional
tools for
dealing with
it had lost
their
effectiveness.
He says
ultra-Orthodox
communities
in Elad,
Jerusalem
and Kiryat
Sefer
approached
him with
requests to
copy the
course model
in their
communities.
Because few
people still
go to the
police to
report
sexual
offenses,
the
impression
of
increasing
numbers of
sexual
assaults is
based on the
increase in
the number
of victims
calling the
hotlines of
the rape
victims'
crisis
centers and
on the
growing
number of
victims
turning to
ultra-Orthodox
therapists
for
treatment.
"Below the
surface,
ultra-Orthodox
society is
undergoing
change,"
says Agasi.
"It is
growing. On
the margins
there are
frictions
with the
secular
world and
this
encounter
creates in
adolescents
great
frustration
and a
feeling of
missing
out."
The openness
to group
therapy,
Agasi feels,
is a result
of the
availability
of
therapists
that
ultra-Orthodox
society can
trust, such
as the
course
participants.
Gafni, who
returned to
religious
observance,
is a young
man doing
his
residency in
psychiatry
and has so
far treated
10
ultra-Orthodox
offenders,
feels the
norms of
reporting
offenses
brought to
the
ultra-Orthodox
world by the
newly
observant
are
gradually
being
internalized
by the
ultra-Orthodox
public.
"Many people
who returned
to religious
observance
and whose
children
were hurt,
are not
willing to
accept
ultra-Orthodox
society's
policy of
keeping
silent and
silencing
others."
"Once we saw
an
unfortunate
offender,"
says the
rabbi
responsible
for Lev
Shome'a's
hotlne. "We
took him to
a
psychologist
and a
psychiatrist,
who saw him
as an
unfortunate.
Etgar said,
"Gentleman,
he's not
unfortunate,
he's
dangerous
and he must
take
responsibility.
There is no
such thing
as 'what can
you do, my
evil
inclination
overpowered
me,' as they
say in our
community.
You have to
realize that
you and only
you are
responsible
for your
actions."
id the Zohar predict Mumbai, and the Redemption on the eighth day of Chanukka?
