With the background that Jewish women stay in abusive marriages twice as long as their non-Jewish American counterparts, we attempt to understand the religious and cultural factors that may inhibit Jewish women from leaving violent relationships, and examine Scriptural and Rabbinic texts as to Jewish beliefs regarding spousal violence. A variety of academic sources and primary scriptural texts were analyzed for religious and cultural attitudes towards Jewish intimate partner violence. Eight Jewish victims of spousal abuse, five Rabbis and seventeen community support workers were interviewed. Jewish women face a variety of unique issues with regard to how domestic violence is experienced. Issues of communal shame, fear of anti-Semitism, learned accommodation, community disapproval, divorce law and other cultural and religious factors act as barriers to leaving. Biblical, Talmudic, and Rabbinic texts, however, speak clearly against marital violence and support a community effort toward victim support. There are thus conflicts between actual Jewish religious doctrine, and the interpretation of Jewish values amongst Jewish community members. There are social and cultural barriers to Jewish women leaving their abusive relationships, but an analysis of religious doctrine offers a source of strength for women to leave. The onus is on the Jewish community to effect change by breaking the silence and renouncing abuse.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:YALE_med/oai:ymtdl.med.yale.edu:etd-06282006-112457 |
| Date | 10 November 2006 |
| Creators | Light, Rachel Rose |
| Contributors | Linda C Degutis |
| Publisher | Yale University |
| Source Sets | Yale Medical student MD Thesis |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://ymtdl.med.yale.edu/theses/available/etd-06282006-112457/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Yale School of Medicine or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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