“The problem is that a kibbutz is standing in front of you and you have no name or face for it”: Child sexual abuse risk factors and disclosure in the collective kibbutz community

“It’s a Phenomenon in Our Community, a Phenomenon That Is Silenced”: Child Sexual Abuse and the Circles of Silence in the Jewish National Religious Community in Israel

“…Arab teachers in Israel have also expressed that the fear of negative effects and the desire to protect the honor and reputation of the families involved in CSA cases can lead to underreporting (Sigad and Tener 2022). Likewise, CSA survivors from Israeli kibbutzim, which are communal communities specific to Israel, were actively silenced by adult figures in their kibbutzim (Michel and Tener 2023). In the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Israel, silencing was found to be confounded by social norms, the taboo of male CSA survivors, and the expectation of unquestioning obedience to authority, leading to the underreporting of CSA cases (Zalcberg 2017).…”

“…This barrier to the disclosure of CSA has been found internationally in a variety of minority communities (Sawrikar and Katz 2017a). For example, in the research on CSA in Israeli kibbutz communities, one of the main justifications found for silencing victims was to protect the community's reputation and particularly the familial characteristic of the kibbutz, including mutual dependence and trust between the members (Michel and Tener 2023). A similar finding was revealed in the context of reporting CSA in Ghana, where protecting family reputation and maintaining family ties were primary causes for not reporting (Amo-Adjei et al 2023).…”

“…Given this vital role and their ability to affect outcomes, it is necessary to understand how their values and community influences, particularly their socio-cultural and religious backgrounds (e.g., Sigad and Tener 2022;Sigad et al 2023a;, affect their coping with this phenomenon. For example, research on closed, religious communities has found that perceptions of community cohesiveness, hierarchal status, and individual reputation can lead to the doubting and silencing of CSA survivors, as well as a general lack of information and awareness of CSA and its characteristics (Lusky-Weisrose et al 2021;Michel and Tener 2023).…”