JACS, based in New York with
the help of that city's Board of
Rabbis, offers a more spiritual
answer to addicts and their
families. It ia a national
organization that seeks to bring
Jewish addicts and their families
together to "reconnect with
Jewish traditions and explore
resources and values within
Judaism to enhance their
recovery."
"There is a need for a fesling
about being Jewish," one JACS
member said. "A lot of the time
Jewish alcoholics have the feeling
that the religion has turned away
from them. There's more of a
stigma in the Jewish community
toward alcohol than there is
toward drugs. I think it's this
stigma that is the biggest
problem. Some Jewish alcoholics
will not go to an AA meeting in
this area, because they're afraid
of who might find out. So then
you have .lews attending A A
meetings in Towson or Dundalk
(suburbs of Baltimore). It's an
insidious problem. We want
JACS to be there for the Jewish
alcoholic. We want them to know
that they're not alone."
AND INDEED, they are
hardly alone. JACS has its own
national journal. In the winter
1984 edition, there were reports
of new chapters being formed in
Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, and the southern
region of the country.
JACS also conducts retreats
and support programs for Jewish
alcoholics and provides com-
munity outreach programs. It is
strongly interested in the effects
of substance abuse on the Jewish
family.
Friday, March 29, 1085 / The Jewish Floridian of Palm Beach County Page 17
context, the Jewish alcoholic in
an AA program may take
spiritual refuge in Christianity as
do those around him.
"The problem which many
people have in placing a Jewish
content in their progress," writes
David Steinman, an Orthodox
rabbi and drug counselor in New
York, in the current JACS
newsletter, "ia that one can only
be solved by the individual in his
or her continuing study of, and
growth through, Judaism."
Similarly, Rabbi Shlomo
Porter, director of the Etz Chaim
Institute in Baltimore, notes that
while many Christians in AA
may find Jesus, "searching
Jewish alcoholics have little to
fall back on. A lot of Jews are
afraid of God or spirituality.
They just don't see Judaism as
being able to offer it."
PORTER IS strongly con-
sidering forming a study and peer
support group through his adult
education programs of Etz
Chaim.
"The ethical approach to
Judaism is very close to the 12
steps," Rabbi Porter said. "I
think the 12 steps, themselves,
are steps that should be followed
by non-alcoholics. But listen,
here's such an opportunity for
Jewish education, why waste it?"
Rabbi Donald Berlin of Oheb
Shalom, who is a local leader in
counseling Jewish alcoholics,
says he has no Jewish problems
with AA but he is highly
critical of the organized Jewish
12 Steps Toward Overcoming Alcoholism
1. We admit we are so powerless over alcohol that
our lives have become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a power greater than
ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives
over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory
of ourselves.
5. Admit to God, to ourselves and to another
human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. We are entirely ready to have God remove all
these defects of character.
7. Humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and
became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people whenever
possible except when to do so would injure them
or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory, and
when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to
improve our conscious contact with God, as we
understood Him, praying only for knowledge of
His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as a result
of these steps, we try to carry this message to
alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all of
our affairs.
community for ignoring the
problem of Jewish alcoholics.
"I'm willing to bet," he said,
"that a number of Jews who went
to A A did convert to
Christianity. There was probably
pressure put on them because
God was talked about more there
than they experienced in their
pasts. But that has nothing to do
with AA. That's a Jewish
problems.
"We've patted ourselves on the
backs and said Jews don't drink,
for too long," Rabbi Berlin said
with anger in his voice. "We've
been afraid to approach these
people. So, what do they do?
They run off to Dundalk and look
for help. The community has
done a number on itself. And
until recently, no one knew where
to turn."
WHILE HE praised the local
JADAS program, he noted that
"Jews are drinking more and
more. We know that Jewish teen-
agers are drinking. Because of
the level of acceptance of
drinking alcohol in moderation,
those who get high on drugs
support their habits with
alcohol."
Rabbi Berlin did say that the
Jewish community is reaching a
point where it can deal more
effectively with the Jewish
alcoholic. He added that it was
important for the rabbi and the
alcoholic to work together to take
care of the recovering person's
needs.
Rabbi Berlin's Yom Kippur
sermon was on the rise of sub-
stance abuse in the Jewish
community.
"These people are shamed,
alone and Jewish," Rabbi Berlin
said. "It is possible that 15 to 20
percent of all Jews are alcoholic.
And here we are feeding the poor,
helping Israel and being involved
in so many wonderful charities,
but we're not doing our best for
the Jewish alcoholic."
Or as one alcoholic who was the
president of two Jewish women's
organizations said, "Alcoholism
is a disease, not a disgrace."
A local program in Baltimore,
the Jewish Alcohol and Drug
Abuse Service (JADAS) is
currently making proposals for a
second year of operation after
receiving a one-year grant for
new and innovative services.
JADAS is operated through
the Jewish Big Brother and Big
Sister League with specific
counseling administered by social
workers Howard Resnick and
Vicki Mermelstein. JADAS
offers community education, in
service training to counselors and
social workers, actual intake,
evaluation and diagnosis and
referral and treatment.
FOR MANY Baltimore area
Jews, JADAS was the first step
on the road back to recovery. The
service not only provides
counseling but also important
educational programs. One such
progam is a skit for school-aged
children entitled "Choices,
Choices."
The skit, which covers decision
making skills and the ability to
cope with peer pressure, goes
"long with the substance abuse
education offered in 10
congregations last fall.
"I think it's important for the
Jewish alcoholic to realize it's
okay to come out of the closet,"
Rnick said. "You know that
only three to five percent of
alcoholics are skid row bums. The
her 95 percent look just like
anyone else, except that they
"jay have a bottle underneath
their car seat."
"Ten percent of any American
e'ty is alcoholic," Resnick said,
and the Jewish community ia
not any different."
"I think it's important to
*e that if you're an alcoholic,
 s not your fault," Mermelstein
said.
I IS THERE a need for a
; apecificaily Jewish program if
aa has been so successful over
" years? Some feel there is not
only because so many AA
meetings are held in churches but
 because AA's credo, the 12
,tePs to recovery, is spiritual in
nature. While there is nothing
I2?M about the 12 "^p8-
a,*d they are compatible with
fc J8. behef. ome rabbis are
TOl that without a Jewish
Spread the joy
this Passover.