JACS Library - Articles

JACS: Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons, and Significant Others

JACS LIBRARY - ARTICLES

DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE? JEWS DON'T HAVE SUCH PROBLEMS, DO WE?

Rabbi Ilana Rosansky

Yes. The answer is decidedly 'yes'; Jews drink. Jews abuse drugs. And Jews feel guilt and shame and so often do not seek help.

Despite the thinking in the community that this is not a Jewish problem, the truth is that parents do have children who are abusing alcohol and drugs. People have spouses who are addicted. We have friends with substance abuse issues. It's a fact of life — even when we deny it.

A few years ago I didn't know much about any of this. Then, a friend of mine on the Board of JACS in New York invited me to attend a JACS retreat, explaining that there are always a range of clergy who attend the twice annual retreat.

Well, I want to tell you that this turned out to be an extraordinary (and ongoing) learning experience for me. But first, what is JACS? According to their web-site (www.jacsweb.org):

JACS, an organization led by volunteers, is dedicated to:

encourage and assist Jewish alcoholics, chemically dependent

persons and their families [significant others], friends and

associates to explore recovery in a nurturing Jewish environment

by conducting retreats and other events that provide support to

Jews in recovery; promote knowledge and understanding of the

disease of alcoholism and chemical dependency as it involves

the Jewish Community; and act as a resource center and

information clearinghouse on the effects of alcoholism and

drug dependency on Jewish family life.

JACS was founded in 1979 by a small group and has grown to serve thousands of Jews from across the spectrum of observance levels. It was under the auspices of the NY UJA/Federation Task Force on Addictions. Today, JACS offers retreats, spiritual days, recovery meetings, holiday workshops and other programs for those in recovery and their significant others. And JACS also trains clergy, lay leaders and treatment professionals. Today, JACS has regional groups around the country as well as groups in Brazil and Canada and Israel.

JACS also serves teens, making them aware of the problems of addiction, providing support to those who have grown up in an alcoholic or additcted family or who are themselves in need of recovery. As one teen put it:

"... I know JACS saved my life. I had four acid tabs, and I was

going tot do them all to drown myself out of life. That day, JACS

came to my school. I listened to the speaker and was so moved, I

flushed the acid. I have been clean since." (15 year old Yeshivah student)

One of the amazing aspects of JACS' retreats is that over 275 Jews (285 at this retreat) gather together from all over the world (US, Brazil, S.A., Canada, Isael), and from all of the the Jewish spectrum. Young secular Jews in jeans standing next to Chassidic Jews with Shtreimels and black robes or sheitels, and they all get along! They attend all different 12-Step programs — AA, NA, Al-Anon, Nar-Anon, ACOA (Adult Children of Alcoholics), Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous and others, in their home cities (and JACS meetings if there are any). They are in various stages of recovery. They are recovering from substance abuse or they are related to someone who is. They are "working the 12-Steps", ultimately a spiritual transformation. They support each other in their quest. They comfort one another, and when a JACS member "goes out" (begins using again), one time too many, they recite kaddish for them.

The JACS retreat, in particular, is a spiritual week-end. A shabbat together with lots of options. Carlebach style services on Friday night or "general" services with many prayers in English or "why I'm not in services" discussion. Singing, Friday night dinner, dancing. Meetings with sharing of peoples' struggles. Men, women, children, teens, families with babies... And after lunch on Saturday, the 'Ask the Rabbis' panel... Meetings, discussions, a chance to take a walk in the country. A chance to stand in a circle at the end of each session and meeting and recite the Sh'ma and the Serenity Prayer:

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

And then these words of encouragement to each other - almost a cheer:

"Keep coming back. It works, if you work it. So work it, you're worth it!"

They have admitted they have a problem - 1) that they are powerless with lives unmanageable, they have 2) "come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." Then 3) "made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him" and 4) "Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves." And that is just the beginning of a life-altering transformation. It is like the process of T'shuvah that we Jew tend to engage in around Rosh HaShanah. The parallels are unmistakable!

And it is humbling to be in the presence of people earnestly searching and dedicating themselves to turning their lives over to God; to making amends. To sticking with their abstinence. To sharing. And unlike their regular home meetings, they get to do this twice a year together with other Jews. Each time I attend a JACS retreat I renew my sense of awe at the courage that I witness among the participants. I learn so much from the people who come together here to share and to support each other. People who make themselves vulnerable. Men who say good-bye at the end of the retreat and cry on each others' shoulders. Women who cry and laugh and sing. Sharing an honest struggle.

Presently, according to the JACS Newsletter, there are only a few JACS groups in Massachusetts: Brookline: (2nd & 4th Wednesdays of each month, 7:30-9 PM at Temple Sinai (Charles & Sewell Aves.). (617) 527-1888 or jacsboston@aol.com; Westboro: Contact Rita at Zylla101@aol.com, and a new group being formed by the Merrimack Valley Jewish Family Service in Lawrence: (978) 683-6711.

Some people from JACS have approached me to see if we would be interested in starting a JACS group on the North Shore. If you or someone you know are involved in a 12-Step Program, or have someone who is struggling with substance abuse, and would like to see a local JACS group, please contact JACS via the web-site (www.jacsweb.org), by e-mail: jacs@jacsweb.org, phone: (212) 632-4600, or contact me at Temple Shalom (978) 741-4880.