Peers Give Orthodox Teens Lesson In Drug Use And Abuse

Aleinu’s “Davening Under The Influence” Shabbat of Awareness, presented a powerfully relevant program confronting today’s pressures on teens towards substance abuse and addiction. The presentation featured Dr. Joshua Lamm, medical director of an Orthodox adolescent addictions center in New York, and a short film from teens who personally survived a foray into drug use.

Alcohol and drug abuse has increasingly become a concern among parents of teens in the Jewish community. As a result, Aleinu is focusing on this high-risk behavior through community workshops and the Shabbat of Awareness annual program, which has previously raised community focus on sexual abuse and internet safety. Through Aleinu’s Issues Anonymous group, these boys produced the aforementioned video both to progress their individual healing and to share with peers their experience in receiving resources of aid and support.

Parents are shown an edited version of the video, while rabbis are shown additional included segments that baldly state the problems these teens have with their religious leaders and teachers. Though the words seem harsh, they are very revealing to the underlying problem of communication and the video has been, so far, meaningfully received by the rabbis.

Since the article has been written – Issues Anonymous has become a school program often requested by Rabbis and Principals as a mandatory workshop for matriculating students, and their parents.