"JACS: A Jewish Response to Alcoholism" by Samuel Rothberg
[Samuel Rothberg is Asst. Rabbi at Temple Beth El, Hollywood, Fl.]
 
About two years ago, a man came into the temple asking to see a
rabbi.  He introduced himself as Alan S. and he told me that he
was 47 years old, though he appeared older.  He explained that he
wished to make a confession and ask for forgiveness.  I told him
that as Jews we normally confess only before God and not before
another human being, and usually on Yom Kippur.  He explained that
he was aware of this but still felt it necessary to tell me about
himself.  With that he began his litany.
 
He had been a successful businessman, married with three children,
but, because of his alcoholism, his business had failed and his
children had lost all respect for him.  He recounted every nuance
and detail of his degradation, including the forcing of his wife
into prostitution.  Alan explained how he lied, cheated, and
compromised everything and everyone around him.
 
When I asked him about his health and if he was still drinking,
Alan told me that he was well and had been sober for three years,
with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous.  In response to another
question, he explained that he was not living with his wife --
although he had contact with her on a regular basis.  After I asked
him a few more questions, I told him that he was forgiven.  With
that he stood up and shook my hand, thanked me for my time, and
left the study.  I never saw him again.
 
At that time, I had no idea why he had come to the temple and asked
me for forgiveness.  Then, last December, a young man named Ted
stopped into my study.  Also a recovered alcoholic, he had just
received permission to use one of our classrooms once a month for
a special group of alcoholics called J.A.C.S. -- Jewish Alcoholics,
Chemically Dependent Persons, and Significant Others Foundation,
Inc.  As Rabbi Malcolm Stern writes, "J.A.C.S. is no substitute for
AA and the other agencies.  It came into being to offer a Jewish
component to treatment:  to provide recovering Jewish addicts
opportunities to gather under Jewish auspices, to offer insights
from Jewish tradition, and to provide intellectual and spiritual
support."
 
Until recently, Jews and non-Jews alike believed there were
virtually no Jewish alcoholics or substance abusers, despite such
notable cases as poet, Naphtali Herz Imber, author of "Hatikvah"
who died of chronic alcoholism in 1909.  The Jewish actress Lillian
Roth achieved Broadway and Hollywood fame before the age of 20, and
then endured sixteen years of alcoholic degradation before
overcoming her illness, as chronicled in the 1954 film, "I'll Cry
Tomorrow."
 
But why the need for our congregations to house J.A.C.S. and AA
groups?  Although the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous
is non-denominational, many Jews feel uncomfortable going into a
church for meetings.
 
"J.A.C.S. supplements and complements existing self-help programs
and attempts to help addicted Jews, their families, and the
community to integrate Jewish traditions and heritage into the
recovery process."  (JACS mission statement)
 
Of the hundreds of AA and Narcotics Anonymous groups meeting each
and every day of the week in South Florida, only three of them
occur in a synagogue or temple.  Because of its non-participation,
the Jewish community has abrogated its responsibility of the Jewish
substance abuser.  Just as the individual alcoholic denies his or
her disease, so too do Jews, on a communal level, deny substance
abuse.
 
Although AA does not endorse any particular religion, its program
has a spiritual dimension that makes a church or synagogue an
appropriate meeting place.
 
The first step is for alcoholics to admit that they have no power
over alcohol and that they can no longer manage their lives.  The
second step begins a spiritual journey of recognition, in the words
of the program, "that a power greater than ourselves could restore
us to sanity."  The third step -- that of "making a decision to
turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understood
him," brings the recovering alcoholic face to face with his human
limitations.  "His defense must come from a higher power."
 
The steps of AA also mirror the repentance ritual of Yom Kippur. 
The fourth step, "making a searching and fearless moral inventory
of ourselves," is the act of - chesbon hanefesh - taking an
accounting of the soul.  This is the first step of repentance -
the step that all of us, the non-alcoholic included, take with
trepidation.  "Admitting to God, to the self, and to others the
exact nature of our wrongs" is the fifth step.  This act of v'dui,
confession, so prominent in the High Holy Day ritual, is one of the
most difficult steps for an individual, alcoholic or not, to take. 
This was the step Alan S. took when he came to me in 1984.
 
The ninth step of the AA program is found in the Schulchan Aruch,
which states that all the atonement in the world is ineffective if
a person has harmed another, unless forgiveness by the victim of
one's wrongdoing has been sought.  All these steps, so confluent
with the Jewish ritual of repentance, awaken within the individual
a spiritual need that, for Jewish substance abusers, can be filled
by J.A.C.S.
 
Part of the denial mechanism of the alcoholic is that alcoholics
are only those people who inhabit skid row.  Although a portion of
alcoholics are on skid row, the vast majority are not.  According
to Rabbi Isaac Trainin of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies
of New York, alcoholism affects Jews of every economic status and
every level of observance.  A New York survey indicated that 50%
of Jewish alcoholics studied had an annual income of at least
$50,000 per year.
 
Substance abuse can affect anyone, regardless of religion, age, or
socio-economic background.  The Jewish community, in general, and
the synagogue, in particular, can enrich itself by opening its doors to 
the recovering substance abuser.
 
[Reprinted without permission.  Citation: Reform Judaism, a
publication of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC),
Fall 1987 issue, Page 22]