Sex, Lies, and Rabbis: Breaking a Sacred Trust - True Crime Book About Religious Scandals - Perfect for Book Clubs & Ethics Discussions

Tremendously helpful for victim/survivors. Mirrors and validates my own experience of rabbinical sexual abuse and the resulting aftermath. I particularly enjoyed the section on the nurturing act of NOT forgiving. Many Jewish people have become so assimilated that they are unaware of their own religion's profound take on this. The author not only discusses it, but validates it with her 25 years of experience as a practicing psychologist. The book provides a deep survey of cases of rabbinical sexual misconduct. Even more cases have come to light since then that would be a great addition if this book is ever updated. Overall, she delivers the bad news that nobody wants to hear. The content of this book is terrifying, frustrating, enraging, and true to my own experience of the Jewish community in 2018. Not much has changed since this book was written. This is a must read for anyone considering coming forward with their story, to expose misconduct. I hope others will read it too.The book could use an editor, if only for formatting inconsistencies in the Kindle version. The writing is repetitive in terms of describing cases or reiterating certain points. I found that this makes it easy to read sections out of order or to take a small bit at a time. This is especially useful to a trauma survivor whose reading and concentration are affected. To people with no experience of these realities, the writing will most likely come across as sensationalist. First, these acts are traumatic and dramatic in and of themselves and to pretend otherwise is to minimise or remain in denial. We ought to be outraged, not placid. Second, perhaps if these issues were actually given proper attention, there wouldn't be the urgent tone. It is an urgent issue. The author is not being sensationalist, she's addressing a deadly problem with a sense of urgency.When I say deadly, I'm not only referring to the homicides. There are also the suicides of victim/survivors, which we have yet to quantify. And then there's the diminished quality of life for survivors as they are blamed and shunned and struggle with post-traumatic stress... Is life not precious and is this not a problem worth being shaken up about? The power structures of our religion must change, or more lives will be lost. This is an important book.