Chabad's Brooklyn Schools Launch Unprecedented Educational Effort To Combat Child Abuse

Chabad is using a national program specifically set up for haredi and Modern Orthodox communities to educate about child sexual abuse. But the announcement of Chabad's program doesn't mention child sexual abuse at all – it only mentions physical abuse, apparently because like other haredim, Chabad won't use the word "sexual."

Letter to the Crown Heights community:

All of us have heard too many sad stories about kids and abuse. We wring our hands in despair and wish the difficult and awkward story would go away. How can we stop this awful pain? What preventative steps can we take to protect our children?

Now we are taking a positive step. We will empower the children and educate them so that they know the boundaries of personal safety and what to do in an unsafe situation. This fall, Crown Heights mosdos will invest in our children's fundamental human right to a safe and secure childhood. Safety Kid® is coming to town.

The Safety Kid® Child Safety program was created and developed by the Aleinu Family Resource Center, a program of the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. Designed specifically for the frum community, Safety Kid™ teaches kids from a positive and tznius perspective how to protect themselves from all types of danger they may encounter.

The program was initiated by [Rabbi Nochum Kaplan of] the Merkos Chinuch Office, which formed a parent committee who has worked hard to bring this long overdue program to all our Lubavitch pre-schools and elementary schools in Crown Heights.

During the week of October 28, 2012, Aleinu representatives will hold workshops and training sessions for Crown Heights School staff, administrators, teachers, and all community parents. Volunteer educators will be trained by Aleinu to go into the classrooms once a year and to teach the students using upbeat, fun and interactive materials, how to protect themselves from physical abuse.

The program also covers other areas of safety like "stranger danger", fire safety, school bullying, what to do when lost or separated from parents, as well as other vital day to day safety practices.

Mandatory evening parent workshops will also be held to increase awareness and prevention. Parent participation is vital. Each child will receive a Safety Kid® kit to take home and review with their parents.

Together with the children, the safety practices they learn at school will be reinforced at home. "Tell Mommy what the Safety Morah taught you today, show me your "safety tree" and we will fill it in together". "Mommy is so happy that you checked first before you answered the front door, etc."

Our kids must know from a very young age what is an "OK" or not "OK" touch. They must know that they can and must always come to mommy and tell her that someone did something to them that made them uncomfortable or scared.

This New Year, we will make a hachlata together and show our children that their safety is our utmost priority. More information and scheduling details will IY"H be forthcoming. The significant fee for the Safety Kid® program is being shared by our schools and the Chinuch Office.

With much thanks,
Crown Heights Parent Safety Alliance

When you check the website of the Safety Kid program Chabad is using, you'll immediately note that is openly talks about child sexual abuse – which is the main reason Safety Kid exists:

Why is Aleinu SAFETY KID training important?

Research shows that 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 7 boys in the United States are sexually abused before age 12. Only 1 in 10 victimized children report sexual abuse of any kind to someone who can do something about it. We need to empower our children with the skills to keep themselves safe and supported by educated parents and teachers.

 

You can't fix a problem like this until you fully admit it exists and allow it to have a name, just as you can't do an effect good touch, bad touch program without showing children what that means.

 

Chabad gets an "A" for effort here, but a "C-" for its willingness to tell the truth about what the problem actually is.

 

You're fighting child rape and molestation. Say that out loud. I guarantee you, doing so won't hurt anyone – except the pedophiles who are hurting your kids.

Comments

[Blima]

Chabad's Brooklyn Schools Launch Unprecedented Educational Effort To Combat Child Abuse

Way to go Chabad!

[Blima]

Chabad gets an "A" for effort here, but a "C-" for its willingness to tell the truth about what the problem actually is.

Ah yes, never let a good deed go unpunished.

[Shoshi]

I think it is FANTASTIC that they are taking this step. It represents HUGE progress, and will probably educate a lot of the parents on what is safe and what isn't (like that example about opening the front door, among other situations, I'm sure). I hope and pray this will make a big impact in the culture.

Of course I agree that the absence of any reference to sexuality is an issue--but the children would likely have no reference whatsoever for that, as all matters related to sex are taboo in the Chareidi world, as we know. However, within their context, knowing that you can't allow someone to touch you in certain places and in certain ways, even if it is a respected adult, is a big deal. (I've always wondered how sexual abuse can take place if a child knows you aren't even supposed to be TOUCHING the opposite sex. I think it has to do with fear of authority, and the assumption that your parents will side with the perpetrator. Having it explicitly stated that your parents will help and protect you might have a significant impact.)

[Shoshi]

Oh, and I just realized that a lot of sexual abuse does not involve the OPPOSITE sex, which actually does confuse kids. When all the emphasis is on boys staying away from girls, young boys don't always realize that sexual contact with boys and men is also considered off limits. (Of course, nothing is mentioned about male-male stuff because "we don't suspect Israel of that".)

[bostonborn]

i have reviewed the curriculum and though it discusses and teaches "stranger danger" such as when to open the door to a stranger. it does not do any justice to people who may touch you in a way that makes you uncomfortable. Its too bad that the opportunity to address sexual abuse is not a center piece. it actually is hidden and disguised. We know the majority of abusers are known to the child.
It does address who is safe to go to if a child is lost or threatened. Someone who looks like them or a police person.

it has an ancronyn ABC approach

http://www.aleinu.net/AleinuChildSafetyInstitute/safetykid.aspx

[Reese]

Good first step. Now if we can only stop Chabad rabbis from going to court to VOUCH for registered sex offenders!

[seymour]

thye cannot they need to take baby steps first.

if they scream it like you say they would not get approval from the leaders and from the parents

[John]

So if it's not mentioned people won't know about it? It's funny that these days if someone doesn't mention about sex, when it's clear what their intention is its considered "Taboo".

[Jeff]

Ah yes, never let a good deed go unpunished.

Posted by: Blima | October 16, 2012 at 07:36 AM

And never pass up an opportunity to be an apologist for the Haredi world.

[dh]

You have to crawl before you can walk.

[avremel shemtov]

but Hirshel Raskin molested me repeatedly in my early teens and he now heads the Mesivta for montreal for early teens.

[Jake]

You go Chabad!

[dk]

sex, sex, sex .....that's all chabad do .
chabad/messianic sect education is based on sex . produce, produce, produce....

chabad brainwash their female and male students since 6th grade about sex . how important sex is to be sexually productive .

that's all their education is all about .

so, if chabad does not want to use the word sex then, they are dishonest .

also, in this case, they probably got millions from the state for that specific program , more than they need . but mention the issue of sex abuse briefly in their classes .

[```]

@avremel shemtov,

you should report hirshel raskin to the authorities and take a lawyer to protect yourself .

as of today, hirshel raskin must have molested dozens of teen agers , 10 years old to 14 years old , at the montreal mesivta . there should be an investigation right there now . i'm sure many teen agers will speak up . but you need to put a complaint in writing with the montreal police dept and the montreal D.A .

don't be afraid . do it ! you'll save many teenagers in the future .

[David]

Once they've sorted out sexual abuse they need to work on educational abuse - the fact that frumma kids are usually given an extremely poor secular education thus ensuring that they are unemployable or only employable in basic jobs.

[Shmuel]

Do they skip all the sex--related stories in the Torah?

[avremel shemtov]

dk, I just want to make sure he doesn't teach 15 year old chabad bochurim. You would think one of the parents in the Chabad -lubavitch Mesivta Ateres Menachem in Montreal would have done something. I guess being molested by a Rabbi in Chabad is not just tolerated but openly sanctioned and paid for. At this point we are supposed to sit back and watch the horror show.

Family tradition prohibits the imprisonment of Jews.

[avremel shemtov]

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2007/06/chabad_molestat.html
picture of the great Rabbi and headmaster of the chabad mesivta for teenage boys in Montreal, Rabbi Ravi Hirsch Raskin aka Hirshel raskin

He molested me and other teens. He is a murderer.

[chafetz b'ilum shmo]

They're in the main, I suspect, trying to mitigate eventual damage and punitive damages they will likely have to pay to successful litigants in vsarious cases around the world. Chabad is not in the business of latching on to new social causes not specifically endorsed by the late Rebbe Schneerson.

[Korben Dallas]

Chabad is going down, thank God. May the name of their filthy fucking idol perish, may he burn in hell for his apostasy, and may his victims see justice.

[tudriss]

Avremel was past the age of consent and Hirshel was a fellow student in an older class.

Avremel, cut it out.

And BTW pay some cs!

[chabad/messianic cult ppl are dishonest. they cover up sexual abuse]

@tudriss,
....'avremel was past the age of consent'... how do you know ? do not write something you don't know . that's dishonest . avremel was under 14 when the sexual abuse started and kept going .

student or teacher , what's the difference . hirshel should have been arrested to stop other students from being hurt for life .

do not cover up a sexual predator , bc you are one , yourself .

[avremel shemtov]

tudriss ,
thank you for your deep true words of understanding and goodness.

[avremel shemtov]

tudris, i can raskin locked up for a long time if i wish. ask his brother in law and family lawyer about it. ask them about large payments for cover-ups.

[avremel shemtov]

I CAN EVER ARRANGE IT SO THAT RASKIN IS CAUGHT ON CAMERA IN THE MIKVA WITH AN ERECTION WITH HIS 15 YEAR OLD STUDENTS. would that satisfy you?

would it satisfy you if i told you that he had recruited carefully not one not two but more than ten and that his continued way after he was married??

would it satisfy if i told you that he molested teens while he was typing thew rebbe's maimorin for the choizrim?

would it satisfy if i told you that i wrote to the lubavitcher rebbe about this?

would you like to speak to my father who wants to kill raskin? you want his phone number?

[mendel]

: Korben Dallas--
You give us such chizuk.
"All Who Go Out to the Wars of House of David." The students of the Yeshiva Tomchei Temimim are the "soldiers of the House of David" who fight the wars of the House of David against those who revile the footsteps of your anointed." In the words of the Rambam in his Laws of Kings and their Wars and the King Moshiach:[4] "He [Moshiach] will fight the wars of G-d" until he is "victorious." [That Moshiach will be victorious] is also indicated by what follows after "who revile the footsteps of your anointed."
"Blessed is the L-rd forever Amen and Amen."[6] For "Amen" (and all the more so when Amen is repeated) testifies to victory in war,[7] through which the coming and revelation of Dovid, Melech HaMoshiach will be accomplished in actual reality.

[' ''' ''''']

@avremel,

report raskin to the authorities to save kids from being scarred for life from sexual abuse . go for it !

[International School India]

This type of effort is necessary. Because many children get problem of abuse.

[International School]

Once they've categorized out such a misuse they need to work on academic side the fact that frumma children are usually given an incredibly inadequate luxurious knowledge thus guaranteeing that they are unemployable or only employable in primary tasks.

[Simple Jew]

B"H

Update:

http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=47873