Shine the Light: Sexual Abuse and Healing in the Jewish Community

Rating:
Summary: Illuminating. Insightful. Inspiring.
Review: Rachael Lev has made brilliant work of incorporating visual art and creative writing along with interviews with incest survivors to make a strong case for addressing sexual abuse and promote healing among members of the Jewish community. Lev expertly weaves her own story among those of other survivors. She describes reasons for the widespread denial that incest exists in the Jewish community. She documents the struggle for survival as she and her other subjects grow into adulthood, often facing depression, disfunction and disconnection from family members. She recommends ways for Jewish leaders and therapists to support incest survivors. And she highlights art as an outlet for feelings that are at once too powerful to contain and too painful to address head-on. Her own story and several others illuminate the powerful healing that can occur with recognition, acceptance and support. Shine the Light is a must read for anyone -- and this means just about everyone -- inside and outside the Jewish community, who has felt the impact of incest on yourself, a family member, client or friend.