More than 250 people recently attended the Jewish Community Watch’s gala event in the Rok Family Shul in Miami. The organization, created four years ago, supports and assists survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Victims and their loved ones gathered to look back at the organization’s impact and commit themselves to the JCW’s mission.
Award-winning (and Shabbat-observant) reporter Rosh Lowe emceed the evening. He introduced the founder of JCW, Meyer Seewald, who started the organization as a blog in 2011 in order to expose a predator he knew was abusing young teens in a Jewish community in Brooklyn.
Seewald listed all of the work JCW has done over the past year to prevent abuse and help survivors heal. He also mentioned JCW’s work of subsidizing therapy for over one hundred survivors, of logging hundreds of reports of abuse, and offering a wealth of information about the topic to the one million visitors their website has received.
Awards were presented to the honorees. They included: Ben Nash, a philanthropist and major supporter of JCW and Eli Nash, Ben’s brother; Benny Forer, a rabbi, professor, and assistant district attorney from Los Angeles who was acknowledged for his counsel and assistance; Dr. Mark Horowitz from Los Angeles; Abe Pasternak, COO of PCS Wireless and Director of the Arora Nash Foundation’ and Rabbi Yosef Blau, mashgiach ruchani at YU and an invaluable member of the advisory board.
The Gala chairwoman was Dinie Shapiro; committee members were Freida Bindell, Raizel Kahn, Devorah Kaplan, Nicole Kavana, Chani Laber, Dini Leeds, Henya Mizrahi, Eda Schottenstein, and Gabriella Shapiro.
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