AN IMPORTANT VIDEO MESSAGE FROM RAV YITZCHOK BERKOWITZ SHLIT”A REGARDING THE SAFETY OF THE CHILDREN OF KLAL YISROEL:https://youtu.be/wAI94moFI34
Together with the full public support of Rav Berkowitz, Rav Boruch Soloveitchik, and Rav Morgenstern, funds are being raised here for Jerusalem Eye, a grassroots effort to prevent incidents of assault on children in Jerusalem.
When the rabbanim started this effort in 2018 there were between 7-5 reported incidents of assault per month in the neighborhoods of Sanhedria. Since they installed cameras (cost of 750,000 ILS) they have seen a reduction in about 90% of the incidents, now only about 1 every three months. When abuse is caught on camera, they have evidence to catch the offender. With every incident caught on camera the attackers are dealt with accordingly.
The goal of this campaign is to cover all of Jerusalem with CCTV cameras to prevent assaults on children, and to catch offenders in action. As has been seen so far, the cameras serve as a major deterrent. In recent months, the community has not been able to afford to keep the cameras on. The plan is set to install cameras in the neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo - the cost would be a staggering 4 million shekels.
Our childrens’ safety and futures, however, is priceless. And so the rabbanim are turning to klal Yisroel for help.
As time shows again and again, the most powerful way to protect our children is by shining light on abuse, and dealing with problems head on rather than allowing them to fester in the shadows. Many children do not tell their parents what they have been through because of the stigma and shame of concealed abuse - This trauma has massive ripple effects on our communities, and on our future generations.
“For years, our neighborhood Sanhedria Murchevet was plagued with burglaries. Friday nights if someone was out you could be sure someone would break in to the apartment. Just a lot of loss of property, belongings. Aside from the financial loss, personal items that mean a lot to people. So we got together and set up a system of cameras, security cameras.
But in the process, we realized that there was something else going on. Perhaps Hashem had sent us the burglaries, for the sake of being able to discover. Throughout the week, all sorts of individuals from outside the neighborhood are driving in and did awful things to children. We had absolutely no awareness of anything like this going on.
Catching this on camera of course, meant that these people
could be identified. People are in prison. The police appreciated it.
But this is going on, on a constant basis.
https://thechesedfund.com/chessed-forever/jerusalemeye?aff=2