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Recently, I read a shocking and saddening report published in the “Jewish Press.” In an article written by Sandy Eller, entitled “67 Deaths in Eight Months,” the New York-based Adumin organization revealed that since Rosh Hashanah, 67 Orthodox young people under the age of 35, in the tri-state area alone, have died because of substance abuse. The figure is astonishing! 67 young lives! In the Orthodox community! Gevalt! 21 suicides, 41 drug overdoses, and 5 alcohol-related deaths! I don’t have statistics available, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this figure is higher than in the overall age group in the general tri-state area, which numbers 1000 times more. As Hamlet might say, “Something is rotten in the Orthodox community in New York.”

Eller writes that the Orthodox community has hidden the problem for years. Now Rabbi Zvi Gluck, director of Adumin, has decided it is time to come out of the closet with the issue, in order to save lives.

Of course, we all empathize with the plight of these young people, and the tragedy of their deaths. Certainly, just like every individual is unique, the causes behind these deaths vary from case to case. But, to tell you the truth, if I were a young Orthodox person living in New York, I too would want to be drunk or stoned most of the time to escape the emptiness, inner horror, and hypocrisy of galut existence. How can you raise an Orthodox child to believe in the Torah while teaching him that Jewish life in the Diaspora, living amongst the gentiles in alien lands, is perfectly OK?

Any normal child who reads the Bible understands that G-d wants the Jewish People to live in the Land of Israel, just like it says in the Torah again and again. But if you tell a Jewish child that living in New York is just as good, and even better than living in Israel, you screw up his, or her, brain, and some form of schizophrenia is sure to follow. The Torah was given to be practiced in Eretz Yisrael, not in Egypt, or the wilderness of Sinai, and not in Brooklyn, New York. That’s why Judaism in the galut is hollow and void of real spirit. Like Rashi, and the Ramban, and other great Sages have written, the practice of the commandments in the exile is just to keep us from forgetting them so that we will know how to do them when we return to Eretz Yisrael.

Young Orthodox people sense this charade. They sense the hollowness of Orthodox life in America. This feeling of emptiness leads them to feel alienated from Judaism, and from life in general. Unfortunately, to express their feelings in the Orthodox world around them is strictly taboo, as forbidden as cheeseburgers and pre-marital coupling, so they resort to alcohol and drugs to drown out their inner anxiety and deep unhappiness in living a life that doesn’t feel true. Some anguished souls even commit suicide.

The real problem is that no one tells them the truth. No one tells them that their inner feelings are really healthy feelings – that a Jew is supposed to feel the emptiness of Torah in galut, because the real place of Torah is in Israel. Their parents don’t tell them; their teachers and rabbis don’t tell them; the Rosh Yeshiva doesn’t tell them that they are perfectly right to feel the way they do, because, just as the Torah portion, Behukotai, teaches, Jewish life in the exile is a curse, a life filled with anxiety and dread.

If the Orthodox community in New York wants these terrible tragedies to cease, there is only one solution – to teach young people that the joy and spiritual high of Judaism are waiting for them in the Land of Israel. They don’t need shrinks and half-way centers. They need to hear the truth. No more half-way Judaism. It is time for the full Judaism of Eretz Yisrael.

Reprinted from The Jewish Press.

A dear friend of mine of 35 years lives in my Jerusalem neighborhood. He taught several of my sons; my children and his children are the same age, and they learned together in the same classroom for years.

Almost two weeks ago, my friend’s youngest son was arrested and imprisoned. For a week, he and four of his friends – all minors studying at a yeshiva in the Shomron – were interrogated by the Shabak without the privilege of speaking with a lawyer. My friend still has not been allowed to communicate with his son.

The lawyers who eventually met with the youths were outraged at how harshly the young suspects were treated – tied to chairs throughout the day, denied sleep at night, yelled and spit at, and threatened with cruel punishments if they refused to admit they threw rocks at a car three months ago that killed the Arab woman driving it.

My friend’s son is being charged with murder and four other terror-related activities. Because he is a minor, his name cannot be disclosed according to Israeli law. But I know his father and spoke with him. Here is what he told me:

“Naturally, as parents, my wife and I are extremely distressed. We believe our son is innocent, and the lawyer who spoke with him assured us that the investigators have no concrete proof against him. From what the lawyer told us, our son has been deeply traumatized by his treatment in prison and being charged with murder.

“I don’t know why he and his friends were arrested. Just because his yeshiva is located in the vicinity of the rock throwing doesn’t mean anything. The perpetrators could have been Arabs who believed that Jews were traveling inside the car. Arabs throwing rocks at cars throughout Judea and Samaria is a regular occurrence.

“I’d like to say that my wife and I both understand and value the work of Israel’s Security Forces and the Shabak. Day and night, in life-threatening actions, they carry out missions to ensure the security of our people…. Therefore, we are against blanket condemnations of their work and the name-calling that has surrounded the arrest of the five boys and their persistent illegal actions against what the media labels ‘hilltop-youth.’

“Nonetheless, it appears to us that the so-called Jewish Division of the General Security Services has stepped out of line in the case of my son and his friends and in many similar cases. It seems that they carry out false and damaging arrests in order to justify their salaries and the existence of their department. Or else they do it to placate the Arabs or due to orders from someone on high….

“It may very well be that a handful of Jews sometimes take the law into their own hands, committing acts of revenge – we know of such cases. However, acting in an illegal manner, arresting innocent minors and forcing confessions from them through physical and psychological torture while ignoring their basic rights, is a practice that must be uprooted and banned.

“The prime minister is the official head of the GSS [General Security Services]. He cannot, on the one hand, complain about his own personal unfair treatment by Israel’s law establishment, claiming they are hounding him without cause while he condones illegal actions against minors and other citizens of the country.

“Responsibility for the illegal and immoral actions of the Shabak’s Jewish Division lies with the prime minister. If G-d forbid, an innocent youth suffering from the trauma of torture and long incarceration commits suicide in prison, the prime minister cannot hold up his hands and claim he did not shed his blood. We call upon Bibi Netanyahu to shut down the anti-Jewish Division of the GSS and put an end to its barbaric and illegal behavior – now.”

Reprinted from The Jewish Press.