H eadlines
Addiction Continued from Page 1
an online community for Jews
in recovery across the country.

Yet Jews struggle with
addiction, too, Glazer said,
and because of the stigma
within Jewish communities
surrounding addiction, those
Jews must struggle silently.

The American Addictions
Center predicts that 20% of
United States Jews have a
history of addiction within
their family.

Glazer has struggled with
food addiction and codepen-
dency and is in recovery
himself. He was hesitant to
share that he was a rabbi in
recovery because rabbis were
supposed to give, not receive
assistance. But because addic-
tion is so stigmatized, many
rabbis are not equipped to
talk to congregants about the
subject. “I’ve heard people come
into my group, and they say, ‘I
went to my rabbi for support,
and my rabbi had absolutely
nothing to offer,’” Glazer said.

“‘My rabbi said something like,
‘Well, if you hadn’t married
a non-Jew, you wouldn’t have
these issues.’”
Rabbinic schools don’t train
rabbis to address addiction
in their communities, Glazer
said. There’s a belief that Jews
don’t experience addiction or
substance abuse disorders.

During the pandemic, those
with substance abuse disorders
have had a particularly difficult
time. At Amudim, an interna-
tional service that provides
clinical care for those strug-
gling with addiction, mental
illness and abuse, cases rose
rapidly in the U.S. over the past
two years, from 2,818 in 2019
to 4,371 in 2021. In previous
years, cases had risen modestly
by a couple hundred a year.

David Kushner, who works
in government relations and
special projects at Amudim
and lives in Philadelphia,
believes the growing numbers
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Rabbi Michael Perice told his
Temple Sinai congregation in
Cinnaminson, New Jersey, about
his substance abuse disorder in
June. Rabbi Ilan Glazer
Courtesy of Rabbi Ilan Glazer
Rabbi Abby Michaleski
Courtesy of Rabbi Abby Michaleski
Marla Kaufman
Courtesy of Marla Kaufman
Courtesy of Rabbi Michael Perice
are an alarm bell for Jewish
recovery resources and Jewish
community members alike.

“Some of it was somewhat
expected, but the depth and
volume were not expected on
this level,” he said. “Those
that have been successfully
in recovery — many people
relapsed; and those who were
struggling had a much harder
time; and those that didn’t
realize they had an issue —
their issues really came to the
surface.” Because COVID lockdowns
sent individuals to their homes
and hindered social connec-
tions, those with addictions
and substance abuse disorders
lost support systems crucial to
recovery. “Addiction is a disease of
isolation, of disconnection, of
void of spirituality,” said Rabbi
Yosef Lipsker of the Chabad-
Lubavitch of Berks County.

Lipsker has been on the
front line to mitigate the
harms of isolation on those
dealing with addiction. The
Chabad has partnered with
Caron Treatment Center in
Wernersville since 1999. Over
the pandemic, Lipsker has
dropped off Shabbat dinners
at Caron, challah and matzah
ball soup stacked tightly in the
trunk of his car every Friday
afternoon. Out of many Jewish
movements, Chabad was the
first to acknowledge addiction
within the Jewish community
and start providing Jewish-
specific resources, Lipsker
said. He cited the Lubavitcher
Rebbe’s teaching to help “the
weakest link” as his call to help
those with addictions.

“I’m not here to create a
rehab center,” Lipsker said.

“I’m here to look at, assess and
evaluate what’s going on, and
when I see there’s a need for
a certain idea, I jump right
into it.”
Yet Jewish-specific resources
are still few and far between.

Jewish rehabilitation centers
dot the country, such as Beit
T’shuvah in Los Angeles, but
local resources vary.

“The Jewish world has
generally not put any funding
behind this issue, nor have
we thought about it in any
systemic way,” Glazer said.

Jewish Federations and
Jewish Family and Children’s
services, including those in
Greater Philadelphia, have
only recently begun to provide
resources to those struggling
with addiction, Glazer said.

Some Jews have tried to turn
See Addiction, Page 24
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