About jsf
The Jewish Survivors Forum is a community of survivors of sexual abuse from all walks of Judaism, who come together on the platform to share, vent, learn, and support each other. Our community is diverse - our members represent all levels of yiddishkeit (or not), every gender and orientation, and an array of experiences and stories, all brought together by a desire to help each other and build an understanding, strong support system.
What can you expect from the Forum?
First and foremost, you can expect a truly diverse, safe, and anonymous space for Jewish survivors to share, learn, vent, build a support system, and heal. To facilitate that, we've implemented the following:
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A Safe Space to Express Yourself and Gett/Give Support - You can post about anything that pertains to your life as a survivor. With categories like Telling Your Story, Healing, Relationships, Abuse & Halacha, Yiddishkeit, Activism, etc., you'll find lots of ways to reach out, connect and even learn a thing or two. NOTE: At this time, we are NOT accepting applications to the Forum, ONLY the support chat - see description below.
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A Peer to Peer Support Chat on Telegram
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Right before Pesach in 2020, we decided to launch a Telegram group chat to provide on-demand (usually!) peer support. It's almost like a little family (but, like, the good kind, with boundaries)!​
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Strong and Clear Rules & Boundaries - Your safety on the Forum is our number one concern. We've implemented extensive standards to make sure the Forum is a safe place to be for all of our members.
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Programming - In addition to being a place to go to express yourself and get support from other survivors of sexual abuse, we regularly hold online educational programming around the topics of mental health and healing, occasional in-person get-togethers and an annual survivor retreat.
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Peer-Led Survivor Support Meetings - Starting in June 2023, our peer-led survivor support meetings come together on Zoom, every other Monday at 7:00 PM EST. Click here for more info and to get on the waiting list!
Our mods
Sara Rosenberg
After her best friend and fellow advocate died as a result of CSA, Sara decided to dedicate some of her free time to supporting Jewish survivors of sexual abuse, and is specifically passionate about building a strong, healthy, safe community for survivors (and being loud about it on social media), resulting in this JSF. While in NO WAY a mental health professional, Sara is a Level 7 crisis counselor at Crisis Text Line and a Certified Trauma Support Specialist, and is always learning best ways to deliver trauma informed support.
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Sara is a survivor of CSA and grew up in a frum community (but is no longer frum). She lives in Philly with her partner of 20+ years and she has 2 amazing children. In her free time, she enjoys getting blocked on social media and sharing amusing memes in JSF chat.
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Yup - you've seen her around Jewish social media - the amazing Ariella! Ariella is a passionate advocate for Jewish survivors of sexual abuse and provides our JSF fam with her vast knowledge of the legal system as it pertains to sexual abuse cases, as well tremendous allyship and no nonsense support. We are lucky to have her moderating our chats!
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