The Learn and Live organization helped ‘Rivki’ escape from an Arab village this week. She had been trapped for three months, kept under the home of her Arab captor, who lived in the house with his wife and three children. “The beatings were unbearable,” Rivki said. “He used to push me down the steps. I have bruises all over my body.”

The scenario of a young Jewish girl being lured into an abusive relationship is all too familiar. In this case, as in many others, Rivki wasn’t trapped in the physical sense, but the psychological pressure was overwhelming. “He threatened to permanently damage me if I left him,” Rivki relates. “I was afraid. He always carried out his threats. He also threatened to tell my elderly father that I went with an Arab. That would just kill my Dad – so I felt I couldn’t leave.”

Rivki’s sister, who was in touch with Learn and Live, begged her to meet with Mr. Ari, one of Learn and Live’s counselors. “It took a lot of work,” Mr. Ari explained, “but we convinced her to file a police report against him and get a restraining order. I called him personally and let him know that if anything happened to her, I was aware of his threats and the police would arrest him immediately. An 18-year-old girl alone can be easily intimidated. With our backing and support, we gave her the courage to leave.”

Rivki is two months pregnant.

“We see the same ‘tricks’ used over and over again by abusive men to lure a young girl into a relationship,” said Patty Kupfer, Director of Learn and Live. “There’s the ‘stolen purse’ trick: Someone steals a girl’s purse, and a second man comes to the rescue and tries to catch the thief. He doesn’t catch him, but he comes back with offers of money or a cell phone or a ride.

“What she doesn’t know is that the two men are a team, working together, and she is now lulled into a dialogue with an older man she would never normally speak to. All her defenses are down, since he’s helped her. She then willingly accompanies him, and he begins to wine and dine her until he takes her into his village. It is only later that the abuse begins, when the girl is either physically or emotionally trapped. We need to warn these young girls – before they are involved – of the dangers of such relationships, in order to prevent these tragedies.”

(YWN – Studio B)