As a sometimes spokesman for the Israeli chareidi community I try to keep myself abreast of what is going on in the community. Frankly this particular task often gets me down. The needs of Klal Yisrael are many and the money needed to pay for them is enormous. The recognition of how many members of our community live in pain — some self-inflicted most not; some remediable some not — is depressing.
For instance I spent the afternoon of the Seventeenth of Tammuz in a crowded office watching videos in which Jewish girls some barely into their teens tell their stories of involvement with Arab men and describe the slippery slope that can end with being imprisoned as chattel in some forsaken Arab village. Perfect viewing for a fast day.
And the phenomenon is a growing one. The director of the youth centers established by the Learn and Live organization in Tzfas told me that when they opened up the first center four years ago there were four girls in this category; today there are over sixty. And the organization has a list of 600 girls in danger in just the northern part of the country. Nor is the phenomenon confined to the secular world.
But there is a flip side to such bad news: the inspiration from meeting those who have stepped up to alleviate the suffering. Most often those who do so have no unique personal connection to the suffering population. They have seen other Jews in pain — that’s all. Often their efforts seem quixotic; they lack any special expertise or personal resources. And yet rarely do their efforts fail to bear fruit.
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