UNITED STATES
Forward
Brocha ShanesCOMMUNITY CONTRIBUTOR
My first confrontation with sexual harassment was not on the streets but within my small Modern Orthodox high school. As I walked down the hallways, its walls decorated with quotes from prominent rabbinical figures and pictures of students bent over Judaic texts, I heard my name being called alongside whistles and jeers, crude language and gestures, and comments on my body and clothes. The harassment even followed me into the classroom, where I had such difficulty concentrating that my grades slipped. Yet while I certainly felt hurt, and scared enough that I avoided interaction with a number of perpetrators as often as possible, I had no language to describe the crimes being committed against me. I had never been given an opportunity to learn about consent; the closest thing to sex-education my high school offered was a three-day series of “kallah classes,” (bridal classes) two of which were spent learning the Jewish laws concerning a married woman’s menstruation and the last of which was spent on a field trip to the mikveh (ritual bath). I had never heard the term sexual harassment, and perhaps more importantly, I had never learned that I had a right to be uncomfortable with it and stand up for myself. Without this understanding, I remained a victim of harassment for years.
An appreciation of both the severity of the sexual crimes one may be committing and that of the crimes committed against them is dependent upon comprehension of bodily autonomy and the constant relevancy of consent. When institutions responsible for educating young people neglect to ensure that they recognize consent or a lack thereof, they indirectly facilitate sexual transgressions. The importance of actively protecting against such ignorance is particularly relevant in light of these students’ age-appropriate vulnerability. Yet my Orthodox school is only one of many that toss the subject out of their curriculum with the rest of sex-ed.
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