A leading domestic violence charity has seen a 50 per cent surge in the number of women using its services over the past four months.
Jewish Women's Aid, which supports women and their children affected by domestic abuse, expects to help 600 women this year though its counselling, helpline, legal and children's service groups - a 50 per cent increase on the 400 women and 111 children who relied on the charity in 2015.
JWA said the number of people dependent on the organisation had risen from 40 to 60 since November.
According to JWA executive director Naomi Dickson, the surge could be explained by growing awareness of the issue in the community. Since November, JWA volunteers have placed information posters at bus stops, shop windows, doctors' surgeries and restaurants in Jewish areas nationwide.
She said: "Since the campaign started we have had an average of one new client per day coming in. Agencies are referring people to us as usual, but the main difference is that women have gained the knowledge and the courage to pick up the phone and contact us directly themselves." Ms Dickson added: "The focus of the campaign is that domestic abuse happens everywhere, across the whole span of the community - no area is exempt. We challenged the community to acknowledge this fact, and to blow the cover of secrecy which surrounds the issue."
Case study: Former JFS student Esther Marshall, 26, was a victim of domestic abuse. For a year, she was abused by her ex-partner, who is Jewish. She recalled locking herself in the bathroom, crying and in pain, but never telling anyone about her ordeal. She says: I was too scared to come forward as I thought people would think I was weak. I thought myself that I was weak because otherwise how would this have happened to me. Most people know about domestic abuse. However usually coupled with that is the emotional and psychological which has a much more detrimental effect on women and stops them from coming forward to get help. It took me eight years to speak about it properly. It's not easy, even now. Miss Marshall has founded StandTall, an online platform to support women who have been abused. She believes more needs to be done to raise awareness of domestic violence in the community. She says: I do not think there is enough awareness at all. It needs to be spoken about more and people need to stop seeing it as a taboo. Many women in our communities are going through this and do not feel supported. There is not enough education out there and not enough awareness at all. There can always be more done as there are still plenty of women and girls who are afraid to speak out. Of course [JWA's campaign] can be seen as a step in the right direction but by no means is this a reason to stop. She adds: I think the main point is education. The way that we can stop this is through education - education of girls and boys in our young generation. This is vital in order tobegin to stop this, not just in the Jewish community but the world as a whole. Miss Marshall has launched a fundraising campaign to build StandTall homes, which she hopes will provide care for abuse victims.
Jo, a mother of three who was a victim of verbal abuse, was advised to contact the charity after one of her children's teachers saw a JWA advert. The school had noticed a change in the behaviour of the children. Jo contacted the charity which arranged for a specialist worker to meet her children on a weekly basis. She has now moved out of home and is divorcing her husband.
In line with national statistics, one in four Jewish women are believed to have been affected by domestic abuse. JWA reports show that it happens across the religious spectrum and affects all generations.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, JWA's patron, described the surge in demand as "deeply disturbing".
He said the increase told two stories - "one which is very positive and one which is deeply disturbing. The first is the success of the ongoing campaign that Jewish Women's Aid is running - awareness of their work has never been higher… The second is the tragic truth, that we face no less of a challenge in dealing with domestic abuse, than any other community."
He added: "One in four women will suffer domestic abuse in their lifetime. That is a statistic which should provoke both shame and action in equal measure across our community so that we can send the strongest possible message to women everywhere that they need not suffer in silence."
Retired Judge Dawn Freedman, who set up JWA's legal support panel eight years ago, said the surge in demand could also be explained by legal aid cuts.
"Vulnerable women are finding it very difficult to access legal aid, even for domestic violence. That's where our legal panel comes in," she said, noting that the panel was made up of 20 lawyers and 12 McKenzie Friends, trained "lay people" who support women through the court process and paperwork.
She noted that in the past, domestic violence was considered to be: "A black eye and a cut lip - you had to show a bruise. Over the years it has changed to include emotional, financial, psychological - all aspects of controlling abuse." But, despite increasing awareness, she said there is still a tendency to cover up abuse in the community.
"There's a lot of pride and I think there's a strong inclination to feel that even an unhappy marriage is better than a broken marriage as far as children are concerned, which is a misperception.
"Sometimes family members say: 'Everything else in your life is fine, you have a nice home, nice children - you're making too much of it'."
Ms Dickson revealed that a number of JWA's service users are affected by get-denial. She said: "We have around half a dozen women a year who struggle on some level to obtain a get."
In some cases, women returned to their abusive partners who had denied them a get. Ms Dickson said: "This could be for a complicated variety of reasons, usually involving access to children and money and the get might be tied up with this."
