by Robert Wiener
NJJN Staff Writer

March 19, 2009

When the Jewish Theological Seminary presents a new play about drug and alcoholic addiction March 29, a local Jewish educator is determined to fill the audience with teenagers from MetroWest.

Rabbi Shmuel Greene said he wants “to let people know there is addiction of all kinds in the Jewish community — and there is help. Jews traditionally have been helpers and are reticent to get help themselves, although we have been battling that, and I think we’ve made real progress.”

The new play, called Freedom Song, was written and performed by recovering Jewish drug addicts and alcoholics from Los Angeles.

Greene said he has no reason to believe that there is a specific or disproportionate problem among local Jewish teens.

But as director of teen initiatives at The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life in Whippany, which is presenting the performance in New York and four other east coast cities, Greene wants to battle the misconception that the Jewish community is immune from substance abuse issues.

“This play is about their lives,” said Greene. “They watch reality shows on television about drug addiction and detox. Our purpose at The Partnership is to bring Jewish learning to life. We want them to be aware of addictions.”

Lewis Abrams, a West Orange psychotherapist with offices in Montville and Manhattan, concurs that denial is itself a problem. He has been counseling teenagers and adults with addiction problems — and their family members — for some 30 years.

“I think there is a stigma in the Jewish community that we have been fighting for years — that it can’t happen to our kids, that it can’t happen to our community,” said Abrams. “So there is susceptibility to denial — not only by addicts and alcoholics but by their families. They deny there is a problem until it gets so bad they can’t deny it anymore.”

The Jewish Family Service of MetroWest NJ offers counseling programs for affected families and refers teenagers and their parents to appropriate substance abuse programs for help.

“I don’t want this to sound like it is a Jewish issue; it is a societal issue,” said JFS executive director Reuben Rotman. “Parents are very anxious about it. Kids are going to be exposed to drugs and alcohol, and it doesn’t matter what school they go to. We work on how to keep kids safe and how to help parents navigate these situations.”

Rotman’s agency refers many families with drug and alcohol problems to Treatment Dynamics, an outpatient substance abuse treatment center in Florham Park and Newton.

The center deals with 60 people at a time, but “at any given time, I would say one third to one half of our client base is Jewish,” said director Nelson Hadler.

‘Greater stigma’

While Hadler does not see “anything unique” about Jewish drug and alcohol abusers, their substance use “probably follows the middle-class and upper-middle-class gateway progression of alcohol and cigarettes to marijuana, and it goes on from there. The teens go first to the hallucinogens, and some progress to cocaine and heroin.”

Although he does not see differences in levels of drug abuse between observant and non-observant Jewish teenagers, Hadler noted that “it is the more Orthodox, traditional Jewish family that attaches a greater stigma to it. The stigma is the biggest thing that keeps people from treatment,” he said.

Recalling one Orthodox teenager he treated, Hadler said, “The father could not fathom why the girl would not come home for Shabbat. She was a heroin addict, and he couldn’t get past it. For me, who happens not to be Jewish, to try to confront that just wasn’t working.”

He and other experts have some advice for families coping with substance abuse issues.

“I want parents to be proactive,” said Hadler. “If they see any signs of their kids using, they need to have an assessment done. It doesn’t mean every kid is going to wind up going away to rehab.”

Abrams and Rotman also had advice for parents, especially those with the “huge problem” of not communicating with their children.

“We believe parents need to get help, even if their kids are not getting help. We let them know how to talk about this with their kids,” Abrams said. “Sometimes you can have the greatest intentions and approach the kid in any anxious, angry way. You can actually push the kid further away.”

Rotman said he and his colleagues “talk to parents about strategies to help their kids be safe,” including parents talking to their youngsters before parties about ways to handle difficult situations regarding drugs and alcohol.

He suggested “secret signals,” so that a teen in distress can call home to be picked up. In this way, Rotman said, “the kid isn’t embarrassed with his friends. He can call his parents and say, ‘I didn’t get that homework done’ as a signal for ‘Get me out of here.’”

Contact numbers

Jewish Family Service of MetroWest: 973-765-9050

Rabbi Shmuel Greene, director of teen initiatives, The Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life: 973-929-2975

Lewis Abrams, a psychotherapist who counsels teens with addiction problems: 973-725-3627

Nelson Hadler, director, Treatment Dynamics: 973-593-0090

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Declining use

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE on Drug Abuse reports that from 2007 to 2008, the percentage of 10th-graders reporting use of any illicit drug other than marijuana declined significantly. NIDA statistics do not include religious or ethnic breakdowns.

Pot smoking was reported by 10.9 percent of eighth-graders, 23.9 percent of 10th-graders, and 32.4 percent of 12th-graders. NIDA figures indicate that reported usage has been declining since the mid-1990s, but it appears that the rate of decline has “leveled off.”

NIDA also reported that fewer than 2 percent of high school students are using crystal methamphetamine (“ice”) or crack cocaine.

Alcohol use is also declining. In the past year, drinking by 10th-graders declined from 56.3 percent in 2007 to 52.5 percent in 2008 — ROBERT WIENER

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