Amudim’s newest video, This Is Not Us, tackles the difficulties victims and their families encounter when reporting sexual abuse in the Jewish community.
The video shows a frum mother, father and their daughter speaking to the principal of a school. The video seamlessly transitions the subjects from dati leumi to chassidish to modern and yeshivish, but the message remains the same. When the parents ask the principal for help they hear:
“He has a family! Children to marry off!”
“He’s done so much good. This can ruin his life.”
These and other excuses are offered without examination. But one can see from the reaction of the parents and the victim that the concern for the perpetrator and not the victim is more than they can bear.
Zvi Gluck, director of Amudim, dedicated the video to Mendy Klein, Menachem Moshe ben Naftali Herzka, who embraced Amudim’s mission as his own. The video was released for Klein’s first yahrtzeit.
“It seemed fitting to release this PSA both on his yahrtzeit and Lag B’Omer, a day that marks the end of a period of mourning for 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s students who died prematurely because they lacked respect for their fellow man. There can be no greater lack of respect than ignoring the cries of those who are in pain, and the notion that someone could turn their back on someone who is suffering ran counter to everything that Mendy believed in” Gluck said
If you would like to make a donation to Amudim in memory of Mendy Z”L, please click here: https://donate.amudim.org/
