local
Sasha Rogelberg | Staff Writer
D omestic violence and abuse
exist everywhere, even in the
Orthodox Jewish world.

“Domestic violence happens in
all communities,” said Deborah
Rosenbloom, chief program offi cer
of Jewish Women’s International, a
Jewish nonprofi t advocating for an end
to domestic violence against women
and girls. “No one is immune.”
To address the problem in the
Philadelphia community, JWI is partner-
ing with Jewish Family and Children’s
Service of Greater Philadelphia and
Dinah Philadelphia to design a slate
of education and training programs
and community outreach opportuni-
ties. The projects are a result of a grant
awarded to JWI by the Department
of Justice Offi ce on Violence Against
Women. The grant, titled “Sh’ma Kolenu:
Engaging the Orthodox Jewish
Community of Philadelphia in
Addressing Domestic Violence,” is for
$450,000 over three years. Awarded
in October with the budget approved
in January, JWI, JFCS and Dinah will
convene a group of Orthodox leaders
this month to build interest in address-
ing domestic violence in the community.

“Our religious leaders are our fi rst
responders, so it’s crucial for us to be
able to provide them the training and
resources to help those in abusive
relationships, which includes knowing
when something is beyond the scope of
their work and when to refer out,” said
Ronni Troodler, program manager and
social worker for Orthodox Services of
JFCS of Greater Philadelphia.

The partnership also will develop
a series of workshops for Jewish
high school and college students at
Temple University and the University
6 MARCH 16, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
Rachel Yakobashvili
of Pennsylvania, legal professionals
and mainstream service providers, and
raise awareness of domestic violence
through signs and brochures at local
Jewish businesses and community
spaces. The interventions and aware-
ness-raising programming will be
tailored to the results of JWI’s 2021
study, “Domestic Violence in the Jewish
Community: A Needs Assessment,”
which found gaps in long-term help for
survivors. “The goal behind this whole thing
is to reduce the shanda, reduce the
shame people feel about it and promote
healthy relationships,” Rosenbloom
said. JWI applied for a grant from the
Department of Justice Offi ce on
Violence Against Women specifi -
cally for underserved populations,
such as faith groups. According to
Rosenbloom, many service providers
who provide care and interventions
for domestic abuse survivors have not
received culturally competent training.

Providers may not know about specifi c
Deborah Rosenbloom
dating norms; shelters may not provide
kosher meals or keep Shabbat; survi-
vors may not feel comfortable seeking
care outside of their community.

JWI does not have any direct
service providers and chose to partner
with JFCS and Dinah, which both
provide direct services to survivors.

Philadelphia also has a robust Jewish
community, allowing JWI to extend
its impact beyond the Baltimore and
Washington, D.C., areas.

Both JFCS and Dinah are part of
JWI’s collaborative membership,
providing national networking and
peer support for Jewish organiza-
tions addressing domestic abuse. The
two organizations, particularly Dinah,
provided input on JWI’s 2021 needs
assessment. JFCS and Dinah, with JWI’s
resources and grant dollars, will be
able to expand their own programming
and community outreach.

“Up until now, there hasn’t been any
institutional infrastructure addressing
domestic violence and abuse within the
Orthodox community in Philadelphia,”
Troodler said.

Because the Orthodox Jewish
community can be insular, it’s import-
ant to identify community leaders
who can provide resources in confi -
dence. According to Dinah Director
of Programs and Partnerships Rachel
Yakobashvili, mikvah attendants are
examples of people who, when trained,
can provide resources and support
for survivors of domestic violence or
abuse. “Domestic violence and services
— they do look diff erent in every
community, and you have to consider
the cultural nuances behind that,”
Yakobashvili said.

Emotional abuse can also take on
specifi c forms in the Orthodox Jewish
world, such as the withholding of a
get, or documentation that allows for
a divorce. Even if a Jewish couple
divorces legally in civil court, if a man
withholds a get from a woman, she is
unable to remarry within the Jewish
community. “Refusing a get is really demoral-
izing to the survivor in the situation,”
Yakobashvili said. “It’s a more insidious
way that abusers manipulate situations
in order to assert power, dominance
and control that isn’t recognized by the
court system.”
With appropriate education and
interventions, more Orthodox commu-
nity members can feel empowered to
address domestic violence and abuse.

“There’s a huge emphasis, as we
know, in Orthodox life on marriage
and family,” Rosenbloom said. “We
want to be sure that those relation-
ships are healthy — and not just the
end goal of getting married, having
children, but that the end goal is like
having a healthy relationship within
that marriage and with your children.” 1
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com Rachel Yakobashvili Courtesy of Dinah Philadelphia; Deborah Rosenbloom Courtesy of Jewish Women International
Dinah, JFCS Partner With JWI to
Address Domestic Abuse in Orthodox
Communities



local
Local Camps Seeing High Demand
Post COVID
outpace infl ation in 2023; and more
fi nancial aid is being requested than ever
before. That last one, especially, may
force nonprofi t camps, like Pinemere, to
do even more fundraising from wealthy
donors, according to Graubart.

But camp directors believe all of
those issues are fi xable. Most said they
would be able to fi ll out their staffi ng
for the summer. It just might take a little
bit of extra work. Unlike COVID, these
challenges are not, as Fingerman put
it, “existential.”
“I fi rmly believe that as long as we
have campers who want to spend
their summers with us, we’ll be able to
support them,” Graubart said. 1
Jarrad Saff ren | Staff Writer
Photo by Andrea Cohen Photography
A t the beginning of March, the
Foundation for Jewish Camp
released its 2022 Census/
State of Jewish Camp Report. Using
data from 246 day and overnight
camps across North America, the
nonprofi t found that enrollment last
summer “grew to 96% of pre-pandemic
levels.” That was up 13% from 2021.

And early reports show “strong
demand for summer 2023.”
Local camps are not just seeing
similar numbers. They are surpassing
them. Summer homes that serve Philadelphia-
area families, like Canadensis in the
Poconos, Nock-A-Mixon in Bucks County
and the JCC Camps at Medford in South
Jersey, have wait lists with hundreds of
names. Directors say that parents want
their kids to get out in nature with their
peers and away from screens. That last
part is especially important because kids
spent so much time online during the
pandemic. “Camp means more now than ever
before,” said Miryam Seid, the director
of Camp Ramah in the Poconos.

Canadensis Director Brian Krug
explained that, if you call him now for
a bed, you will not be able to get one.

But if you had done the same thing
in March 2019, you would have been
able to secure a spot for your child.

Nock-A-Mixon Director Gary Glaser
said, “Typically, we like to be full by the
end of September.” This year, though,
the overnight camp was full by the end
of August.

The JCC Camps at Medford stayed
open in 2020 but with limited capac-
ity. In 2021, it reopened fully and
exceeded its 2019 number. By 2022,
there was “a massive increase,”
Director Sara Sideman said. Going
into this season, the South Jersey day
camp is at 120% of its pre-pandemic
total, with a wait list that is 200 names
Campers at the JCC Camps at Medford during the summer of 2022
long. Sideman said camp is healthy
for kids and a form of child care for
parents, especially now that they are
returning to the offi ce.

“Child care is back to being more of
a necessity,” she added.

Other camps that serve Philadelphia
area families also have seen increases.

Pinemere, based in Stroudsburg,
“well surpassed our 2019 registration
last year,” Executive Director Eytan
Graubart said. Pinemere welcomed
490 kids to its day and overnight
programs in 2022. It even had to build
another cabin. This year, there are
waitlists in the middle school-age
groups with six or seven kids in each.

Camp Ramah in the Poconos is in a
similar situation. The waitlist, according
to Seid, is “longer than ever,” with four
or fi ve kids in some age groups. Camp
Morasha, also in the Poconos, has
increased its capacity to 985 campers
from 950, according to director Jeremy
Joszef. It still has a waitlist with more
than 200 names on it.

“The biggest problem is wait lists,
not fi lling beds,” Joszef said.

Jeremy Fingerman, the CEO of the
Foundation for Jewish Camp, still
thinks about those spring months in
2020 when camps were canceling
their summers. Like so many others
in the camp community, he watched
those videos and felt sad. He also
called those cancellations “an existen-
tial threat for the fi eld.” Today, though,
those announcements feel like a
distant memory.

“I am amazed at the position we’re
in,” Fingerman said.

Elyssa Eisenbrock sent her daugh-
ter Myra to Nock-A-Mixon for the fi rst
time in 2021. The mom said that, now,
her daughter will have sleepovers
with camp friends during the school
year. Melinda Engel’s two sons, Skyler
and Liam, attended Pinemere before
COVID and went back in 2021. She
recalled that when they got home that
year, they were both fi ne with ignoring
their phones for a little longer.

“Overnight camp has always been
a place where kids can learn to be
independent,” Eisenbrock said.

This is not to say that Jewish camps
face no issues. As the report found and
as local directors confi rmed, counselor
retention is below pre-pandemic levels;
costs are up with infl ation; tuition might
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
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