Vicki Polin On Self-Hating Jews

Vicki Polin: 2010 Jewish Community Heroes Semifinalist

It's quite simple, Vicki Polin created The Awareness Center eleven years ago, an organization also known as the International Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, which is dedicated to ending sex crimes in Jewish communities globally. 

Vicki works within every movement of Judaism, from the unaffiliated to renewal, reform, reconstructionist, traditional, conservative communities and all the way to the orthodox, charedi and chasidic world. Vicki's job has not been easy, because she's been shining a light on things no one wants to acknowledge as being problematic. Over the last eleven years Vicki's been threatened, spit on, insulted and verbally abused in her attempts to mentor and advocate for those trying to use the legal system to obtain justice. Vicki's resilience helps her to continue on to educate and protect our communities from sexual predators, and also offer support to those who have already been victims of sex crimes. Her personal mission is to offer hope and healing to many of those who feel they have been tossed aside.

Under Vicki's direction, The Awareness Center does its best to act like the "Make A Wish Foundation" for survivors of sexual abuse/assault and their non-offending family members.

She founded resource for sex abuse victims

By Bryna Zumer

Owings Mills Times - January 24, 2008

Vicki Polin, a counselor specializing in sexual violence, noticed years ago that there seemed to be no Jewish resources for sex abuse victims, and she was uncomfortable referring them to Christian organizations, which she felt might proselytize them or be unable to speak to Jewish issues.

Vicki Polin, MA, LCPC

Before relocating to Israel in 2001, she attended Neve Yerushalayim, a women's college in Jerusalem, and saw that people who had been sexually abused had no place to turn.

"All these young women started telling me what happened to them," Polin said. "I started seeing what a problem it was."

A Chicago native, she moved to Baltimore in 2002 and, in 2003, launched the nonprofit International Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault, now known as The Awareness Center.

The organization's goal is to provide resources to victims and educate the general community, but Polin, an incest survivor herself, has also drawn controversy for posting information on alleged offenders, including many prominent rabbis, on the center's Web site.

"Our goal is education. It's not just about, 'Get this guy, get that guy,'" she said, explaining that many in the Orthodox world do not watch TV or read secular news, but have gained information from the center's Web site.

After she, together with a volunteer board of directors, began posting information on offenders, "survivors started saying, 'Why don't you have my story?' The same (victims) were talking about the same (offenders), and we started putting the pieces together."

Although more than 250 rabbis worldwide support The Awareness Center, critics have accused Polin of "lashon ha'ra," derogatory or damaging speech against another person, which Jewish tradition condemns.

"In some places, we're seen as heroes and in some we're seen as crazy or vindictive," she said.

After Polin received allegations against rabbis by a group that turned out to be linked to al-Qaida and was anti-Semitic, she posted resources on abuse for Christians and Muslims as well.

She also works with groups like The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, and, in addition to running the non-profit almost single-handedly, regularly testifies in court on behalf of victims of sexual violence.

The goal is not just to educate and reach out to victims, Polin said, but also to help abusers.

"There's no proven treatment for offenders. We don't know what to do, how to stop them," she said.

Letters to the Editor - Let survivors speak

Letters to the Editor

Let survivors speak

Chicago Herald News - June 22, 2005

I wanted to thank you for writing such an important article as you did with the story of sexual abuse survivor Bobby Drish, ("Abuse allegations go online," June 16). The Awareness Center is the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault. We also have many stories similar to that of Bobby Drish. It saddens me a great deal every time I hear of another case where the survivor was blamed and not believed. I was so happy that you gave Bobby the opportunity to empower himself enough to bear witness and tell his story.

 

It is vitally important for newspapers like yours to allow survivors to have a voice. Not only does it help survivors heal, it also offers an opportunity for others to know they are not alone and gives our communities the chance to understand the ramification sexual violence has on our lives.

 

Vicki Polin, Executive Eirector

The Awareness Center

Baltimore, MD.