Abstract
Background: Clergy Perpetrated Sexual Abuse (CPSA) is a widespread phenomenon, with many implications for the victims. To date, no qualitative research investigating Israeli national-religious men who were sexually abused by rabbis in adolescence or in emerging adulthood has been conducted.Aims: This article seeks to describe the unique relationship between abused national-religious men and abusive rabbis.Methods: Using the construction-phenomenological paradigm, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with eight men who had been abused by different rabbis at various time periods.Findings: The study revealed a variety of consequences in the lives of the victims as a result of the sexual abuse. This article focuses on three chronologically arranged themes, and deals with the unique relationship between them: the significance of the relationship between the religious victim and the rabbi before the abuse; the different ways in which the victims understood the rabbi’s incorporation of physical elements into the relationship; and the victim’s attitude towards the abusive rabbi after recognizing the abuse.Implications for theory and practice: This preliminary study opens a window into the complex relationship between the abused religious man and the abusive rabbi. The findings of this study constitute a foundation for understanding this unique abuse, as well as for additional research and for establishing intervention techniques that will assist these victims.
Translated title of the contribution | “I said to myself, wow it’s crazy that the rabbi is willing to do something like this to help me”: The relationship between the abusing rabbi and the abused religious man |
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Original language | Hebrew |
Pages (from-to) | 384-407 |
Number of pages | 24 |
Journal | חברה ורווחה: רבעון לעבודה סוציאלית |
Volume | מ"א |
Issue number | 3 |
State | Published - 2021 |
IHP Publications
- ihp
- Authority -- Religious aspects -- Judaism
- Rabbis
- Religious Zionism
- Sex crimes