The Chief Executives of the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council and Jewish Women’s Aid have held a consultative meeting, to discuss the issue of sexual harassment in the Jewish community. We are now examining a suite of measures to ensure that every person in our community feels respected, secure and protected from harassment.
The Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council recognise that Jewish Women’s Aid, as our community’s experts in this field, are the ideal organisation to lead the implementation of such measures. Jewish Women’s Aid is able to use and develop its expertise as specialists in the issues associated with harassment and abuse and in helping vulnerable members of the Jewish community to access the support they need and to give voice to their collective stories. Jewish Women’s Aid has its own established training programme which has provided numerous rabbis, rebbetzens and other professionals across the breadth of the community with the skills to identify domestic abuse in all its forms.
By exploring new ways of addressing sexual harassment alongside its existing work on domestic abuse, Jewish Women’s Aid will be able to provide sensitive and practical advice to assist those affected by this issue.
Measures now being considered by the JLC and Board of Deputies include: Training for staff and trustees of communal organisations, refreshing policies/procedures related to sexual harassment, and ensuring the British Jewish community embodies a culture that does not tolerate sexual harassment of any kind.
We intend that such measures would be introduced in close collaboration with CEOs and trustees of Jewish communal organisations.