Sunday, March 15, 2009

Jews and Addiction: Must Reading

Rabbinic Pastor David Daniel Klipper spoke about the subject of Jews and Addiction at yesterday's service. His words were so important that I've uploaded the entire sermon. Click here to see it.

As he said:

The most important thing I want to say about addictions is the
following: Jews are not immune. Jews do use – they use alcohol, they
use drugs, and they become addicted to sex, gambling, food and
spending.

While it may be possible that Jews are slightly underrepresented in the alcoholic population, it is thought that Jews are overrepresented in terms of certain types of drug addiction, such as cocaine addiction.


When it comes to what are called “process addictions”, like overeating, spending and gambling”, it is reasonable to believe that Jews are also well represented. How many stereotypes are there of Jews who are compulsive shoppers? How many Jews have food issues, whether compulsive eating, anorexia or bulimia? Jews are just as capable of being sex and pornography addicts as anyone else. According to one source, Jews make up approximately 30% of the membership of Gamblers’ Anonymous nationwide, or four times our percentage of the American population, and in some Florida locations GA meetings are as much as 80% Jewish.


Addiction can also seem pretty hopeless. But it is possible for addicts who really want to, and who are willing to do what it takes to find, with God’s help, recovery and a way of life that is better than anything they experienced before.

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