PARPAR:
(Julie Goschalk, in the middle, with organizers, click to enlarge)
On Sunday April 29, 2007, a group of women from the Brighton/Brookline Jewish community joined together at Shaloh House in Brighton, MA in PARPAR's first educational workshop. Julie Goschalk, a licensed clinical social worker with expertise in the field of domestic violence presented an informative and important workshop called "When Push Comes To Shove..." . The presentation included a poignant video and handouts educating us on the responsibility we are to take individually as well as a community in order to prevent spousal abuse abuse in our midst and help victims of the crime.The name of the new group -- PARPAR is an acronym for People Advocating Responsibility for People Asking for Respect. This theme was reflected in Julie Goschalk's workshop.
Julie Goschalk introduced her workshop with a story about how she came to work in the field of domestic violence. She explained the goal of the workshop and set the ground rules for all present. Then came a 30 minute video presentation "To Save a Life" where Jewish women shared their personal stories of how they were affected physically, emotionally and psychologically by living in a setting of spousal abuse. Rabbis of all denominations as well as a Jewish clinical/social worker service provider explained the dynamics of such relationships in which many women are involved in. One relevant theme in the video was why is it that we ask the question "why do women choose to stay in such relationships?" Instead, we should be asking "Why is it that the husbands/men choose to abuse their wives?" thus putting the burden of self reflection and teshuvah on the abuser and not the victim as a first point of action. Julie noted that men can also be victims of abuse by their wives but statistics show that it is predominantly the woman who is in the position of being a victim of domestic violence and the goal of this particular workshop was to educate ourselves on assisting women in this unfortunate role.
Julie continued the main body of her workshop with the following points: the definition of domestic violence, the warning signs, the cycle of violence, risks for children, issues form the video, Jewish issues, the community as a resource, resources in the community, and the role of the Rabbi and the therapists. Time for question and answers was provided with anonymity being respected with index cards provided to write one's questions without having to be identified.
The workshop ended on a lighter note with one participant winning a beautiful gift basket compliments of The BodyShop in Brookline whose support of national campaign "Stop Violence in the Home" made their gift an ideal choice for a raffle prize.
Beautifully colored butterfly pins supporting the PARPAR logo were sold at a discount of $3. We thank all the participants who attended this event, Julie Goschalk for her presentation which was thoughtful and sensitive to the issue at hand, yet covered much necessary and important material. Thank you to our sponsors mentioned on the PARPAR web site and to all those who devoted their time and energy to making this program a success.
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