By: STACEY DELIKAT – FOX 5 NEWS
Opioid abuse is a serious public health issue. Drug overdose deaths are the leading cause of injury death in the United States, according to the federal government. Nationwide, more than 33,000 people died from causes related to heroin and prescription pain pills in 2015.
The problem affects almost every community, including the Orthodox Jewish communities in the tristate area.
Kazriel Benjamin was 25 when his roommate found him unconscious on his bedroom floor.
“Beautiful child, beautiful baby and beautiful child,” Sarah Benjamin, his mother, said. “We didn’t know he was using drugs. That was the first that we knew he was using drugs. Police told us he had overdosed.”
“He’d been to us for a meal two weeks before and he’s bounding in, he looks really good, he’s slim, he’s smiling, he always gave us a big hug and this kid two weeks later was dead,” Yehuda Benjamin, his father, said. “It pulled the rug out from under us altogether because it was so unexpected.”
The culprit was likely a mix of heroin and Xanax. Kazriel’s fatal overdose was 6 years ago. Since then the nation’s opioid crisis has exploded. But in the Benjamins’ Orthodox Jewish enclave of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, this story is rarely told.
“Within an insular community like here in Crown Heights, for example, there is this feeling that we have a moral level, and drugs and stuff is way down at the bottom of where we should be,” Yehuda Benjamin said. “The idea that one person in your family had an addiction somehow taints the rest of your family, which has issues for a future wedding of a girl or boy or a position in a school or any of these things.”
Yehuda and Sarah Benjamin made a conscious decision not to keep their personal tragedy a dark secret.
Earlier this year, Yehuda Benjamin spoke at what was billed as a groundbreaking event in Crown Heights where 650 Orthodox Jews packed in to talk about addiction.
“It really was out there for someone to get up and say, ‘My kid died of a drug overdose,'” Yehuda Benjamin said. “I don’t think it had happened before in Crown Heights.”
But while the Benjamins are some of the only ones in their community sharing heartbreaking stories of drug addiction, they are not the only ones living it.
Daniel said he struggled as an addict in the Orthodox community.
“Nineteen years old, I was full blown all out roxies and Xanax and marijuana and mixing them, selling them,” Daniel said. “I don’t think they knew how to deal with that at that moment. The community would just close you out.”
Now 25, he said he considers himself lucky to have found help that ultimately saved his life.
“I know that at 24 hours a day, seven days a week even in the Orthodox community I know I can call certain people on a Saturday and I know if I call them twice they’ll pick up even though it’s Shabbos and they keep the Sabbath,” he said.
But too many others haven’t been as fortunate.
“We have right now 88 deaths that we know of since January 1st, 2017, to date that are 100 percent opioid overdose related,” Rabbi Zvi Gluck said.
The 88 deaths of Orthodox Jews within the tristate area is a low estimate and may pale in comparison to the national death toll of heroin and prescription pain pills, which reached 33,000 deaths in 2015. Of those, 5,500 were in New York State.
But the numbers, and stories that go along with them, are staggering enough that this tight-knit religious community is now listening. Is this a crisis?
“This is definitely a crisis, we term this in Hebrew a Magefah — this is unproportionate to anything we’ve ever seen before,” said Gluck, the founder and CEO of Amudim, a crisis-intervention organization that serves the Orthodox Jewish community.
“We have literally hundreds of people calling on a weekly basis specifically for addiction issues asking for help,” he said.
Amudim created a dramatized YouTube video of a teenage girl overdosing. The scene has since played out in real life over and over again.
“We’re not angels — we suffer from the same problems everybody else suffers from and addiction is no different,” Rabbi Yaacov Behrman said. He is the program director of Operation Survival, which runs prevention programs in Crown Heights and has trained hundreds of Orthodox Jews to administer the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, or Narcan.
“I saw the need because people are dying,” he said.
While drug addiction is certainly not unique to the Orthodox community, Behrman admitted that talking about drugs has unique challenges.
“Because we are very careful with regards to exposure to the secular world,” he said. “So a mother would be more sensitive in an Orthodox Jewish school to exposing her child to drugs, ‘Why are you teaching my child about drugs, I don’t want to expose them to that at that age or altogether.'”
Overcoming the shame and stigma of addiction is just part of the challenge. There are also issues when it comes to finding the right resources and the right kind of treatment.
“I see much more people seeking help and there’s no funding,” Behrman said. “There’s nowhere to go.”
Video:
I travel throughout Utah continuously working with Jewish kids in residential treatment cebrers throughout Utah. I’ve offered my help in educating the community repeatedly and have done so numerous times outside of Chabad circles; Chabad circles don’t seem to have any interest. Rabbi Benny Zippel
Unfortunately, that’s close to impossible. Chinuch is important, as well as being aware of any medicines you are prescribed as people can get addicted through those, even if they wouldn’t imagine taking drugs. And of course, therapy and rehabilitation is extremely important. But to stop the dealers is impossible, there’s way to many people selling the stuff.
We have to stop the distribution and also the ones who sells driug kits
כל הכבוד להורים האילו שאומרים את האמת .לצערינו קראו לנו כבר מיקרים רבים כגון אילו ,אבל תמיד מספרים סיפורים שהם מכסים על הצרה הגדולה שזה הסמים . כל ילד וילדה צריכים לדעת מה הדבר הנורא הזה יכול לגרום לו . צריכים להפוך עולם יש יותר מידי ילדים שנפלו לזה . ויפה שעה אחת קודם ..
What is the benefit of getting this in TV?
So true
Excuses from the rest
Honesty and openness and transparency
kol hakavod
the only problem is so many people know about all the people taking drugs and dont do anytthing about it!
Neurofeedback and biomagnetism save from addiction!
My son was diagnosed with mental illness and drug addiction over a year ago, thankfully only marijuana but when you combine marijuana with the mental health prescriptions it is counterproductive. He has been to 2 rehabs outpatient and is currently attending a clinic but unfortunately this is not dealing with his drug issue. We are currently looking into two outpatient rehabs one that MASK endorses called LSA in flatbush which takes medicaids and some private insurance. There is also a new Jewish rehab outpatient called Journeys in Boro Park; also looking into that. If you need in patient rehab I… Read more »
My son almost died. Bh Hatzoloh was there. A son of one of the biggest rabbis was the dealer. My son had no idea what he was given. This kid is the biggest supplier in CH. Wake up. My thanks to the Benjamin family for bringing awareness. My heart goes out to them. Could have been my son
I admire the Benjamins for speaking out about a very painful and personal matter. What was not mentioned however, was the fact that drug addiction is a brain disease. The brain of an addicted person no longer functions the way it should. Just as we would have sympathy for someone suffering from a metabolic disorder, or a cardiovascular condition, we need to view drug addiction in the same way. It is almost impossible( and can be dangerous) for someone with addiction, to just stop using.. it is a very complex and difficult disease to cure. Last, we need to understand… Read more »
As a recovering addict you are just like any other person who is turning a blind eye to the problem if you want to know more information on what goes on why did you attend at GA meeting it will help you as a human being to understand that sometimes people’s problems I’m always cancel pe
Kol Hakavod to Yaacov Behrman for everything he does. The one true leader in our community
He is a truly caring and capable person who has stepped up to the bat. May HaShem help him with this crucial mission.
Unfortunately I am one of the parents effected by the drug crisis. My son is 24 and had drug addiction that began with marijuana then cocaine. I sent him to Tikvah Lake Recovery in Florida and they serviced his needs and helped him through therapy, life lesson sessions and Jewish learning to overcome his addiction and other personality problems. They were so personable and private about it. I highly recommend them – TikvahLake.com
Even drug addictions that start from stress have an underlying cause . Usually those susceptible to addictions suffer from a loss of self worth that is caused by severe trauma from abuse they cannot cope with. What drug addict needs is unconditional love and nonjudgmental support.
for most their death is a kaparah and an end to a life of misery,
please think into this- so unkind and harsh
I so appreciate and admire your approach Benjamins. Your efforts should help many others and you should soon be hugging your son in Yerushalayim with Moshiach!!!!!
I don’t know the ultimate solution to prescribe but in general light pushes away darkness and an “empty pit gets filled with snakes and scorpions.” Collectively, adding in meaning and care for each others can certainly help uproot part of the problem before it even starts because people will not feel a lack which makes them turn to these substances and behaviors.
Every life saved is an entire world. One life too many is a crisis for the family, community and world Jewry.
So selfless of you to open yourselves up like this.
TikvahLake .com
Tikvah Lake Recovery is a rehab for the frum community.
We need to do all that we can to stop this today!
sport brings kids out of drugs
most of the frum families whos child or sibling died from an overdose tried everything inc. rehab .
unfortunatly drugs fry your brains and many times the addict refuses to go to therapy unless court mandated
this is not a crisis its sad and painful the numbers are way exagerated and in comparison to how big the frum world is these are miniscule for most their death is a kaparah and an end to a life of misery
a frum rehab was tried many times and they couldnt fill it for free “like yatzkan”….