NCJ Number
86044
Journal
Jewish Journal of Sociology Volume: 23 Issue: 2 Dated: (December 1981) Pages: 113-122
Date Published
1981
Length
10 pages
Annotation
A religious approach to the rehabilitation of delinquents is practiced at the Yeshivat Or Hahayim (The Light of Life Talmudic Academy) in the Bukharan Quarter of Jerusalem (Israel).
Abstract
Founded by Rabbi Reuven Elbaz, the academy seeks to attract criminals, young and old, and draw them away from delinquent life styles to a complete acceptance of traditional Judaism. The rabbi's approach was observed at the academy over 4 months in 1978, and the rabbi and 20 repentant delinquents were interviewed. The academy fosters a complete dichotomy between the former delinquent lives of its students and their present, new-found purpose in ritualized studying, praying, and observing the Sabbath and festivals. Students reject their earlier delinquent activity as steady deterioration toward meaninglessness. They devote themselves to missionary efforts, encouraging others still caught in the pursuit of crime, drugs, women, and football to repent and start anew. The initial breaking of delinquent patterns is reinforced by the missionaristic endeavor, considered integral to the self-reconstitution process. The hostility formerly expressed through lawbreaking is deliberately rechannelled into an energetic battle against lifestyles that reject the teachings of the Torah. Thereby, the basic social experience of deviance -- viewing the world as dichotomized between 'them' and 'us' -- remains intact and enables the delinquents to undergo profound change in other respects. Among the techniques used to accomplish the reconstitution of the self is repetitive use of linguistic patterns and the telling of 'happy tales' of the postrepentance experience. Terminology pairs that underscore the fundamental dichotomy (religious/secular, good/evil inclinations) are typical, as are quotations from the Bible, rabbinic sources, and Rabbi Elbaz himself, that function as thought-terminating cliches to resolve all doubt. A total of 44 notes are provided.