14 | October | 2013 | Researching Reform

It’s a rainy Monday, but that won’t stop the cogs from turning, and so our question this week revolves around the fascinating case of two rabbis who have been arrested for allegedly arranging the kidnap and torture of Jewish men who refused to give their wives a ‘Get’, or religious divorce in Judaism.

The two rabbis and several accomplices have been remanded in custody and await trial. Arrests were made after an undercover FBI agent posed as a wife seeking a divorce.

Some are heralding these men as heroes, liberating often oppressed women suffering domestic violence at the hands of their partners whilst others have branded them villains, breaking the law to suit their own ends and being paid for arranging the kidnap and torture of these husbands.

Our question to you then, is simple, though the answer may not be: Intervening Rabbis – heroes or villains?

We have a particular soft spot for this new enterprise, and not just because Unity & Hope was founded on our birthday, so we thought we would share their brand new posters with you, aimed at tackling child sexual abuse and calling upon the government to make funding available for support services for adult and ethnic minority survivors of such abuse.

As you can see from the first poster, the content is designed to raise awareness of the culture and effects relating to child sexual abuse, and asks the government to increase funding for services which provide support to survivors. We are also very humbled that they have chosen to add our quote on the poster about child sexual abuse, which we believe we added upon signing their petition.

The second poster is the same as the first, but instead of a black background they have chosen to present it with a white one.

Unity & Hope are not a service provider of support for survivors, they are a campaign group dedicated to highlighting the need to have excellent support services for adults who have been affected by sexual abuse as children. Their aim is to show the endemic nature of child sexual abuse and why it is so important that society addresses it and effectively prevents this kind of abuse from happening.

The site offers a range of interesting material on the nature and extent of child exploitation and outlines what it is the campaign effectively want to achieve:

Financial support for development of services and existing services to implement training strategies on understanding the long-term effects of CSA.
Specialist long-term services and access to holistic support services, in every city and county.
24 hour 7 days-a-week helpline that is inclusive of ethnic minority survivors of CSA
Financial support for development of training programmes which help existing services that come into contact with survivors (e.g. A & E departments, Mental Health Services and Social Services, Education).
A mentoring and befriending scheme that provides transitional support during service change from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service to Adult Mental Health Service or voluntary services.

The site also offers helpful advice on what to do if you think a child is being abused.

You can get involved by signing their petition, which we’ve linked to above or getting in touch with them.

We think Unity & Hope is a wonderful endeavour and we hope that they succeed in achieving their aims.