Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the language through which observant Jews, survivors of sexual abuse, advocate their claims for both justice and belonging. It will draw from transcripts of public testimonies of abuse, and will illuminate the discursive sensibilities that sustain this daring form of speech.

Paper long abstract:

In recent years, survivors of sexual abuse in the Jewish ultra-Orthodox world have started to speak out. An emerging grassroots movement, constituted of organizations and activists, provides public venues for them to articulate their claims for both justice and belonging. This movement urges ultra-Orthodox communities, rabbis and institutions to listen to these as yet untold stories, demanding inclusion, recognition and repair.

While it is always a struggle for survivors of sexual abuse to find the right words to describe their experiences, in the Jewish ultra-Orthodox context this struggle resonates with emic semiotic ideologies that hinder attempts to unsilence the matter. To begin with, talking about sexual abuse is impermissible. There are no words for some private organs, and no legitimation to speak about sexuality or abuse of power. The insistence on speaking about sexual abuse is thus subversive, placing the speaker at risk of losing his or her face, good name and secure belonging. Furthermore, ultra-Orthodox individuals must navigate between two conflicting legal discourses: that of the state and that of Jewish law.

In order to explore the stakes involved in speaking "correctly" about sexual abuse in this context, I will draw from transcripts of public testimonies of survivors (in public events in Israel and the USA), as well as from a recorded exchange between an activist and a rabbi. I will analyze the linguistic aspects of these texts (word choice, template, hesitations and silences) to illuminate the underlying sensibilities and possibilities of this communal conversation.