A young man approaches the podium in the assembly room in New Jersey. An array of bright expectant faces glance upward as he begins to speak in show, humble tones. "My name is Asher, and I'm an alcoholic. I'm here to tell you today that I am just like you. Yet, it happened to me, and it may be happening to you. the only thing neither of us can afford to do is hide."

 Across town, Rabbi Carlebach, Director of Chabad's Project P..R.I.D.E. is in the process of preparing drug prevention literature in Russian for his immigrant community.

 In California, Dennis Brown, Administrative Director of the Chabad's Drug Rehab Center interviews a chemically dependent Jewish housewife who desperately needs to enter the inpatient program.

 In Pennsylvania, renowned author, psychiatrist and Rabbi, Dr. Abraham Twerski delivers a speech on spirituality to a Jewish audience offering his special insights on how to incorporate the teachings of our Talmud and Torah into the 12-Step Program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

 And in Miami, Jay Holder, Founder and Director of the Exodus Treatment Center, a residential program which caters specifically to Jews, uses the ancient Chinese method of acupuncture to reduce cravings for crack cocaine in one of his patients.

 Let's face it. The secret is out. We have a problem. There are Jewish doctors who freebase cocaine in their offices between patients; successful and respected Jewish lawyers who've won the toughest cases in the courtroom only to be beaten by a chemical substance in the bathroom. Jewish students who, frightened and alone, expire from heroin overdoses in deserted subway stations. Jewish teenagers who visit crack dens and never return. Jewish housewives who slowly become insane on account of their addiction to prescription medicines like Valium and Xanax. Jewish teens who are hooked on diet pills, and Jewish men who are raging alcoholics.

 We are not immune to addiction, but addiction is not shameful. Denial is. The myth that Jews cannot possibly be addicts because we are the Chosen People, too smart, too special or too different, has served as a self perpetuating deterrent to recovery. The level of "shondah" (shame) and fear attached to bringing the problem out of the Jewish closet has kept far too many Jews in active addiction.

 When you consider that for every person with a drug or alcohol problem an average of 15 others are adversely affected, the prognosis for communal health looks frightenly stark.

 Denial is universally recognized as one of the primary hallmarks of addiction. That it should have permeated the Jewish consciousness so insidiously to the point where our leaders, health care professionals and rabbis have been reluctant to respond is cause for concern.

 This may, however, be attributable in part to the reliable Jewish modus operandi of "cover up". Jews in general, perhaps on account of the persecution that has been perpetrated against us, are reluctant to admit to any weaknesses. Jewish families cover up everything: from a child's learning disability to cancer, bankruptcy, infertility and mental illness. It's almost as if a chink in the side of the structure represents collapse of the whole. It's as though, as a people, we have categorically denied ourselves the right to any imperfections, and those which do arise are suppressed before they may be examined and hence, cured.In this, we do ourselves a tremendous disservice.

 Another consideration is that throughout the course of history Jews have endured endless suffering, much of it in silence. In many ways, Jews have adopted the role of a battered, brutalized, victimized people, and they have learned to live with addiction, silently, just as they have lived with other atrocities throughout the ages.

 In the last decade, however, all this has begun to change, and the stereotype of the jew who drinks only a small tumber of wine for religious purposes on Shabbat or the holidays has been replaced by the far more realistic portrait of an across the board problem affecting every element of the Jewish community.

 According to Rabbi Twerski, who has worked in this field for over 13 years, while the incidence of addiction may not be higher in Jewish circles, than in others, the level of denial, certainly is. "We know that the problem exists," says Twerski, "but we also know of the cover up, and because of it, Jews may not get into tretment as early as they should." As a rabbi, Twerski condones the ritual and minimal use of alcohol for religious occasions for those who have no history of addiction. However, he has no tolerance whatsoever for the type of excessive gratuitous drinking often undertaken in the name of religion. "That may have all been well a few hundred years ago,"he says, "but today when this disease is claiming people's lives by the second, we need to set examples and discourage such behavior, rather than tout it."

 For his part, Twerski has worked tirelessly to bring the problem of addiction to the forefront of Jewish consciousness, and to make the experience of recovery more accessible to the Jewish addict. A renowned psychiatrist and expert at integrating spiritual, psychological and religious truths, he has written countless self-help recovery books. In his dealings with Jewish clients, he incorporates the teachings of the Torah and offers guidelines for addicts to apply these principles into their lives on an everyday basis. Many, as a result, are surprised to learn that the 12-Step program suggested by Alcoholics Anonymous, which he endorses, actually amplifies Jewish teachings.

 Though a pioneer in the field of Jewish recovery, Twerski is certainly not alone. As far back as the early 70's, a distraught parent approached Rabbi Baruch Shlomo Cunin, the Director of Chabad on the West Coast and admitted to the Rabbi that his son had a problem with drugs. Rabbi Cunin was taken aback. What did he know from drugs? As with most outreach endeavors undertaken by Chabad, programs are developed upon demand, and Rabbi Cunin figured that if there was one Jewish kid with this problem, there were probably a lot more waiting in the wings.

 Upon his request, a house was donated, counselors hired, and a center established. Today, Chabad of the West Coast operates a fully licensed professional addiction facility which is always filled to capacity. "Although most of our patients are Jewish," says Director, Dennis Brown, "we are non-sectarian. We serve kosher food, and observe the holidays, but the bottom line here is sobriety.

 We do not demand conversion to a Chabad lifestyle, only that our patients get the full benefit of the treatments we offer." In addition to the program itself, Chabad Drug Rehab works in conjunction with the L'Chayim workshops which are in essence a Jewish A.A. Says Brown, "On any given day, you can walk into the room and find it filled with Jews from all segments of the community sharing about their addiction. We have to make it safe for people to be Jewish and also be addicts, otherwise there is no possibility for recovery."

 The Drug Rehab also works closely with addicts and their families in the areas of incest and spousal and child abuse. "These are very real issues, and also very difficult ones," says Brown, "but they must be dealt with. We can no longer afford to be held back by fear. What's more, help is available."

 If the disease of addiction and its attendant woes impacts upon Jews in much the same way as it does the commuity at large, then our response must be similar also. Everybody involved will attest to the fact that the Jewish response, much like the secular one, must stem from a point of education, on both the communal and professional levels.

 And no element of the Jewish population is exempt, although rabbis and community leaders stress the value of a traditional Jewish upbringing in preventing the incidence of addiction. The current problem, however, is non-discriminating in selecting its targets.

 "Because our offices are located at a vantage point at Rutgers University," says Rabbi Carlebach of Project P.R.I.D.E. in New Jersey, "we see an immediate need for education and prevention among the youth. I'm frequently contacted by parents who are at the point of no return with their kids. Apart from alcohol and the more common drugs, now we have steroid problems.

 Then, there's the situation with the older Russian immigrants, many of whom have alcohol problems, and the younger Russians, because of cultural barriers and a distrust of the "system" find it difficult to become involved on a communal level, and are far more prone to involvement with drugs. And that's just scratching the surface; you've got highly respected members of the community whom we've had to send out of town, on "extended vacations" to recover.

 And then there's the senior citizens who just swap medications with their friends. The need for education across the board is tantamount to our communal well-being. Project P.R.I.D.E.'s efforts are all-encompassing. "We work with colleges, community centers, agencies, anywhere that's involved with human beings, you'll find us there,"says Delicia Saltiel, Director of Operations. Adds Carlebach,"Even though the program is based on Torah principles, it's highly regarded among the secular community as well. There are Catholic School principals who tell us that they'd rather have our program because they know for sure they'll find "nothing non-kosher in it."

 There is also need for education among rabbis and community leaders so that when approached they can offer the guidance and direction necessary for recovery. Says Rabbi Twerski in his booklet "The Truth About Chemical Dependency and Jews", "Yeshivas and seminaries must begin to introduce courses dealing with chemical dependency. Jewish community professionals must become knowledgeable in the field, and community education programs must begin to feature programs of substance abuse. All individuals involved in Jewish communal life must learn to recognize the problem of chemical dependency."

 Jews, like most others caught up in the throes of addiction, operate on firmly entrenched denial mechanisms, says Delicia Saltiel. "Jewish alcoholics sometimes refuse to attend A.A. meetings because they're not available to them in a Jewish setting, but often these are the very people who only days before didn't care whether or not they had a life, much less a religion. The point is not to suggest that Jews compromise their beliefs, rather to recognize that resistence only prolongs the agony."

 The fact is that Jews in trouble with addiction have been waiting for their own communities to provide resources from Jewish tradition for a long, long time. Up until now, they've had to make do with what was available, and groups like JACS (Jewish Alcoholics,Chemically Dependent Persons and Significant Others), a New York-based organization found in 1980 have proven instrumental in breaking down some of the barriers.

 Through spiritual seminars and retreats, outreach programs and workshops, referral abd resource services, JACS has succeeded in raising awareness and finding Jewish solutions for Jewish addicts. At present it offers an addictions certification program through which rabbis and communal leaders can learn to professionally counsel and treat addicts, but more similar type programs are needed in communities across the country.

 None of the groups involved, however, will deny the impact of the 12-Step movement on recovery, yet Jewish reluctance to these programs, based on the fact that they purportedly promote largely Christian and not Judaic ideals, remains strong. Such self-defeating sentiments have been combated by Rabbi Kerry Olitsky and Dr. Copans, who, in their recently published Twelve Jewish Steps to Recovery, make a startling contribution to articulation the bond between Judaism and recovery.

 And this past year, Jewish Lights Publishing put out Renewed Each Day, a two-volume set of daily recovery meditations based on the Bible. through its pages, addicts, in fact anyone who reads it, will begin to discover that recovery and the 12 Steps suggested as the path to achieve it, are as concurrent with jewish life as the prayers we say each day. The Modeh Ani we recite at sunrise says,"I stand before you, G-d with humble thanks. You who empower me with every breath that I take, You who have faith in me, have returned life to me, and I will be forever grateful." this is in essence the song sung on the dawn of every day by A.A. memebers.

 Throughout, A.A. philosophy stresses Judaic precepts. The program recommends that individuals in recovery conduct a thorough moral inventory of past deeds and that they make amends for any wrongdoings. This is strikingly akin to the Jewish tradition of self-examination for which we set aside a time at the Jewish New Year for a literal "accounting of the soul" followed by the making of amends on Yom Kippur, not "simply to repudiate the evil we have done" stresses Lawrence Kushner, author of God Was in This Place And I Did Not Know rather to "receive whatever evils we have intended as our own deliberate creations. We cherish them as long-banished children finally taken home again." And thereby transform them and ourselves. When we say the vidui (confession), we don't hit ourselves: we hold ourselves."

 It is through this kind of painful introspection that addicts embark upon the process of recovery; a road which ultimately leads toward the gates of spiritual awakening. Many regard addiction as the catalyst responsible for turning their lives around. For that reason, Rabbi Twerski told a group at a recent JACS retreat,"Never regret being who you are," and, writes recoveing Jewish addict, Aaron Z., co-author of Renewed Each Day, "Recovery has more than a touch of redemption in it. And like the rope that has been broken in two, we are actually stronger for having been knotted back together."

 It is pivotal for Jews, as well as for all others, to come to a place of true connection to G-d in recovery, but as Dennis Brown attests, "Outward trappings do not necessarily constitute a true spiritual connection. We have men and women addicts who come to us with all the outward signs of religious observance. But once you strip away the prayer books, the rituals and the laws, what you will find is spiritual deprivation in a very real sense. This is true for Jewish addicts at all levels of observance.

 In Judaism, spiritual awakening exists in this the very real world of creation, in all of its diversity and difficulty. It is in confronting our own individual stumbling blocks that we access the potential for an ongoing relationship and dialogue with G-d. It is through them that we transcend the physical and approach the spiritual, by placing our faith and our will in the hands of G-d. For the addict especially, this is imperative.

 Consider the following prayer offered up by Esther L., a recovering Jew from Queens, "In desperation, I call out to You for help and guidance I now realize that, step by step, with Your infinite love, patience and wisdom, I can take hold of the sernity I so long to grasp. With belief and trust in You, my precious G-d, everything is within my reach. At times, however, I must lift up my arms and outstretch my hands just a little bit farther."

 The problem of Jewish addiction is one which concerns us all. As a famous rabbi once said, "If someone comes to you for assistance and all you say to his is "G-d will help you, you become a disloyal servant of G-d." The opportunity for true teshuvah (return to our source in heaven) is ever present for people in recovery and for those all around them. We can never turn away from our fellow man, nor can he turn away from himself, for as stated in the Twelve Jewish Steps to Recovery, "a human being reachs in three directions: inward ot self, outward to others, and upward to G-d." when we are connected to self, we can reach out to others, and when we reach out to others we may come to know G-d.