Welcome to the first issue of “Domestic Abuse in the Jewish Community.” We're so pleased to open yet another line of communication between everyone working in the Jewish DV community.

This newsletter grows out of the first international conference on domestic abuse, which many of you attended this past July. Among the realizations that emerged in those three short days, two things stick out in our minds: First, that we are far stronger, as a community of activists, than any of us realized before; and second, that the potential of our strength is unlimited—as long as we can bring our often isolated work out into the larger Jewish community, where it can inspire and be inspired.

And so we invite you all to make this newsletter what it is intended to be: A forum for those committed to ending abuse around the globe—clergy, professionals, volunteers, survivors, community leaders and more—to keep each other up to date, share ideas, report on successes, network… basically, to galvanize each other’s work in Jewish communities all over the world.

With your input, this newsletter will reach far and deep into the Jewish DV community every two months. Please e-mail your letters, articles, pictures and other updates to JWI Communications Specialist Danielle Cantor, dcantor@jwi.org. If you have any questions about submissions, give us a call at 1.800.343.2823.

Wishing you a safe and peaceful year,

Millie Sernovitz
JWI president
&
Lori Weinstein
JWI executive director

It was a rare picture of Jewish solidarity as the first-ever international conference on domestic abuse in the Jewish community convened July 20-22 in Baltimore, Maryland...

Several weeks after the DV conference in Baltimore, JWI International Vice President Diane Radin delivered a moving sermon to the congregation at her Houston synagogue.

After 25 years working throughout the country with religious and secular communities to address the religious issues of sexual and domestic violence...

On the shabbat of October 10-11th, more than 25 Bay Area congregations spoke out from the pulpit about the problem of Jewish domestic abuse...

A new collaborative coalition to address abuse in the Jewish community recently held its first meeting in Baltimore, MD...

The Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services and its New York Jewish Healing Center will be holding A Multi-Faith Domestic Violence Awareness Day: Clergy Consultation on Domestic Violence...

JWI's groundbreaking National Needs Assessment is scheduled to be released early in December, 2003. Data collection has been completed for the national survey and Dr. Susan Atfeld, JWI's consultant...