Sacred Spaces

Sacred Spaces
Featuring:
Shira Berkovits, President & CEO
The Torah charges us to be an or l’goyyim (light unto the nations). We can not fulfill this important charge without looking inward. Looking within ourselves, our communities and institutions to do what is necessary to create safe surroundings.  The need and desire for safe environments is universal. Everyone wants to work in a safe environment. Everyone wants to send their children to schools, camps and synagogues where they are protected.  Our institutions must be safe places were we flourish and shine out to others. Being an or l’goyyim means we have a moral obligation to set an example to the world. This work begins within. We set the example by our own actions. Shira Berkovits, created Sacred Spaces to do this holy work. Sacred Spaces provides the tools, resources and training to prevent and and end workplace and institutional abuses. 

About Sacred Spaces

Their Mission: Sacred Spaces builds healthy Jewish communities by partnering with Jewish institutions to prevent and respond to sexual abuse and other abuses of power.

Their Guiding Principles: The following is a set of ethical principles that guide Sacred Spaces in their daily operations and in navigating complex situations. We share them as a way of committing publicly to operating ethically and transparently, and allowing the public to hold us accountable. It is also our way of modeling the standards we ask for from the organizations with which we work.

We approach our task with a deep sense of responsibility toward our community, its institutions, and the members in its care. At the center of our actions is the biblical call in Exodus 25:8 to construct a sanctuary: “Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.”. ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם When we create safe and sacred communal spaces, we invite God’s presence to reside in our midst.

We, the staff and board, undertake to cultivate a sacred workspace among ourselves, where the standards we seek to disseminate will be practiced and modeled. We commit to treating our colleagues, both those within our own organization and our partners in other institutions, with the utmost dignity.

Underlying Beliefs

1. The work of creating safe and respectful institutions is a Jewish imperative that goes to the core of what it means to live a life informed by Jewish values.
2. Most leaders and institutions want to create safe and respectful institutions but lack the knowledge and resources to adequately protect their constituents from abuse.
3. Being pro-organization and pro-victim are profoundly compatible. Institutions can act in their best interests and be supportive of victims; in fact, they are intrinsically connected.
4. The work of creating safe and respectful institutions can help communities come together across divides; this is a fundamentally constructive endeavor.
5. Abuse prevention and response must be informed by two realities: Any person can be mistreated or abused, and  certain individuals – particularly those who are socially marginalized – are more vulnerable to mistreatment and abuse than others.

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