Faith

High Anorexia Rates Puzzle Rabbis in NY’s Orthodox Jewish Communities

The New York Times:

In the large and growing Orthodox Jewish communities around New York and elsewhere, rabbinic leaders are sounding an alarm about an unexpected problem: a wave of anorexia and other eating disorders among teenage girls.

While no one knows whether such disorders are more prevalent among Orthodox Jews than in society at large, they may be more baffling to outsiders. Orthodox women are famously expected to dress modestly, yet matchmakers feel no qualms in asking about a prospective bride’s dress size — and her mother’s — and the preferred answer is 0 to 4, extra small.

Rabbis say the problem is especially hard to treat because of the shame that has long surrounded mental illness among Orthodox Jews.

“There is an amazing stigma attached to eating disorders — this is the real problem,” said Rabbi Saul Zucker, educational director for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, or O.U., the organization that issues the all-important kashrut stamp for food. “But hiding it is not going to make it go away. If we don’t confront it, it’s going to get worse.”

Referring to the high risk of death from heart problems and suicide in patients with anorexia, he said: “This isn’t a luxury type of disease, where, O.K., someone is a little underweight. People die.”

As a teenager, Naomi Feigenbaum developed bizarre eating habits that had nothing to do with Jewish dietary laws: Cocoa Puffs and milk in the morning, when she figured she had all day to burn off the calories, and nothing but Crystal Light and chewing gum the rest of the day.

High Anorexia Rates Puzzle Rabbis in NYs Orthodox Jewish Communities

At the kosher dinner table in her home near Cleveland, she said she would start arguments with her parents so she could stomp off and avoid eating. She lost weight so rapidly in high school that she used safety pins to cinch her long skirts around her waist.

By the time her rabbi came to visit her, she was emaciated. He told her that she must attend a treatment program that met on Saturday, the Jewish day of rest, even if she had to violate religious rules by riding in a car to get there. She could even eat food that wasn’t kosher.

“That’s when I realized it was a matter of life and death,” Ms. Feigenbaum said in an interview.

Read on here.

Comments (54)

  • Constitutional
    Posted on April 14, 2011 at 12:57pm

    Maybe they just cant stomache the thought of eating another Matza ball or gifilte fish?

    Report Post » Constitutional  
  • MrsNix
    Posted on April 14, 2011 at 4:36am

    Anorexia is generally associated with a predisposition to anxiety disorders. It manifests in mostly intelligent girls with a desire to please others. They are generally perfectionists and excellent students. Anorexia is not always triggered by a heavy girl’s desire to be thin, but it’s more common than not. The anxiety, at some point, gets focused on weight. A comment from someone. A television program. Something. For some anorexic girls, it’s not about thinness at all but about control. Micromanaging something like food intake feels like discipline and order, and it calms the obsessive anxiety. There is also a high associated with stages of starvation that releases endorphins. It’s more complex than the thin models in magazines…but they don’t help.

    Report Post » MrsNix  
  • Aysel
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 5:15pm

    I haven’t noticed anyone that has actually battled anorexia post, so here’s my $0.02.

    I battled anorexia in high school. I didn’t cut my food because of some wish to be skinny (I was pretty skinny to begin with normally) and it wasn’t from peer-pressure to be somehow prettier. I say this because some of the posters seem to thing it’s mainly to get skinny as to why girls (and some boys) do this. It’s a mental disorder that can be triggered by many things, for me it was depression. Some research shows that starving yourself can act like cocaine does on the brain and can be just as hard to stop. My hope is that these girls can grow to be in a healthy state of mind and not be caught up in unhealthy body images.

    Report Post » Aysel  
  • PIL
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 3:36pm

    Although I love really skinny girls like Paris Hilton, I agree that people should be what nature allows them to be instead of trying to fit in impossible ideals.

    http://libertarians4freedom.blogspot.com/

    Report Post » PIL  
  • Jezreel
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 10:51am

    As a grown adult that suffered from anorexia as a teenager and have since been delivered of eating disorders for many years, I only know it was my environment, home life, that was the main tool that shoved me over the edge. My value and worth was only based on how much I weighed and how I looked as well as turmoil and other things running amok at home. Eating to me was about control and that was the only thing I could control in my life. I hated to sit and eat with my parents. I refused to eat. I lost my periods for 5 years.

    Report Post »  
  • Libertyluvnmomma
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 10:24am

    I am so happy to be normally thin. But the comments I get from soda slurping sitters is astounding. It’s like thin girls/woman deserve rude statements and questions. Like “Do you eat?”
    Apparently not as much as you.
    My mom made homemade food. So do I.
    I’d puke too if my mom opened a box or a bag for dinner every night. Kosher food is pre- packaged too!

    Report Post » Libertyluvnmomma  
    • danielsforprez
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 10:33am

      Kosher food is prepackaged?! What the hell are you talking about? I was brought up as an orthodox jew, and my mom made me homemade dinners every night. Of course there’s such a thing as pre-packaged food, but jews don’t have a monopoly on it.

      Report Post »  
  • whobkhazar
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 10:24am

    So this is old news unless this is the first time the Jews have admitted they have the same problem as everyone else. Rather than waste time with this, read “jouney to Jerusalem” and “Politics and Prophecy” by Grace Halsell.

    Report Post »  
  • Jethro212
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 8:52am

    Why on earth girls think they should be so thin is beyond my mind. Men look 2 places first, the hips then the breasts… I don’t recall which medical school did the study but I remember listening and thinking, “you needed to scientifically do this?! You couldn’t just go to a gym or a dance hall or the beach and watch us?!” DUH!

    Our society hands girls a barbie with double Ds, and the boys get action figures with biceps that are 30 inches (yeah I lifted weights a long time) which is impossible unless you are a steroid freak or weight 400 pounds. Not saying we need to limit toys, but we do need to use our brains and make sure as men we tell our wife in front of hte kids how great she looks, how nice she is, how much you love her.

    It really saddens me that when people have access to great, safe, healthy food, they don’t eat.

    Report Post »  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 8:18am

    Ever tried Kosher food?

    Report Post » Gonzo  
  • teddrunk
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 7:32am

    My wife and I were in Aruba and it happened to be the week a large group of orthodox Jews brought their sons and daughters there to find a mate for each other. I couldn’t believe it. It was sick. Kind of like breeding dogs, so I suppose these girls are told to diet to look thin for their trip to the trading block.

    Report Post »  
    • Blight14
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 10:12am

      I think I would have left the island….that must have been disgusting……….

      Report Post »  
    • danielsforprez
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 10:38am

      You either made up this story or you had no idea what was going on. There are many different customs among orthodox jews in how they marry off their kids, but none of them have parents bring their kids to Aruba and find mates for them. That’s absurd.
      P.S. As an orthodox jew who is happily married, whose 3 siblings are happily married, whose parents are happily married, whose grandparents are happily married, and whose most of his friends are happily married, and whose community’s divorce rate is significantly lower than the rest of America, maybe there’s something you can learn from their approach to marriage. Just maybe.

      Report Post »  
  • teddrunk
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 5:13am

    I’m still trying to figure out why a guy wants to marry a young lady with the body of an 8 year old boy. I guess everyone has different tastes but I think the curves God gave a woman’s body is part of the attraction to a man.

    Report Post »  
  • theduchessofkitty
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 2:13am

    “Orthodox women are famously expected to dress modestly, yet matchmakers feel no qualms in asking about a prospective bride’s dress size — and her mother’s — and the preferred answer is 0 to 4, extra small.”

    This, my friends, is the root of the problem. It’s not the girl who eats like a bird to be the size of a worm: it’s the guys and their families who have these absolutely unrealistic expectations of how a woman should be or look like.

    The rabbis would do better if they told the matchmakers and their clients to “Get Real!”, for such a change could well save lives.

    Report Post » theduchessofkitty  
    • nappy
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 3:51am

      ha! Yeah.. blame it on the guys. Even though it is the WOMEN of the world who do the most damage. The women in charge of fashion magazines and fashion media. The women who buy those rags and read them as if they were a guide to staying relevant.

      I don’t know ANY guys who think the images from the fashion world are appealing at all. In fact, if men were in charge of all of it, and I don’t mean gay men, women wouldn’t have to aspire to be 90 lbs.

      Report Post »  
    • Jethro212
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 9:00am

      Nappy is 100% correct. The guys I have known over the years that liked those little ladies are usually ones you would go (how long till that guy says he is gay). There is a reason the porn industry, their big money maker is large breasts…….

      Report Post »  
  • delhoghe
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 2:04am

    NAPPY……LOL……I didn’t see the ” there ya go funny guy……..good one.

    Report Post »  
  • nappy
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:58am

    So no one sees a problem with some old guy telling a girl when she can ride in a car or what she can eat? Like.. DUH.. THAT is the problem here.

    Report Post »  
    • delhoghe
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 1:12am

      NAPPY…I’m pretty sure the Jewish rabbis have a little less power and authority than you seem to think they have. I could be wrong. But the good news, Nappy, is that Jewish girls are no longer stoned to death by their rabbis.

      Report Post »  
    • nappy
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 1:46am

      Happy to quote the article on THIS page for ya:

      “He told her that she must attend a treatment program that met on Saturday, the Jewish day of rest, even if she had to violate religious rules by riding in a car to get there. She could even eat food that wasn’t kosher.”

      There ya go funny guy.

      Report Post »  
    • delhoghe
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 2:02am

      NAPPY….I never said the rabbi wasn’t an apostate…… he clearly is , but her parents will have to deal with that.

      Report Post »  
    • nappy
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 2:22am

      That wasn’t my point but .. fine.

      The point is the silliness of someone telling another human being when they can do what. What they can wear and where they should go when. I find the entire idea of religious rules silly. Especially when one can break the rules at will.. for anything. But more-so because they are just plain silly.

      I remember my father feeling betrayed after not eating meat on fridays for fourty years. Every religion has its silly rules I suppose. And its uniforms and its guilt trips. And its power hungry egomaniacs.

      Report Post »  
    • delhoghe
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 2:30am

      NAPPY…Jesus lifted the burdens and replaced them with grace. Or at least that’s what I believe. Religion doesn’t make sense even to some of the members, but they follow it anyway. Doesn’t make any sense to me either Nappy.

      Report Post »  
    • nappy
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 2:45am

      with all respect.. exactly what burdens did Jesus lift? Most of the world lives under crushing burden right now and as far as I know.. have always.

      Report Post »  
    • delhoghe
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 3:56am

      NAPPY….the burden of performing works to please rabbis, priests,popes,ministers,neighbors, you name it. Jesus set the bar so high that noone could clear it. Then He came back to life and set it so low that everyone can. All we have to do is accept the bar where He put it. We do that by accepting that He and He alone decides what it takes to be with His Father in Heaven, our Father in Heaven Nappy. The burdens we face on earth are of the earth, not from God. The religious leaders who feed us nonsensical doctrines do so to make themselves seem important. When really they are only as important as the truth of God that they teach. If they stray from God, then we flee from them.

      Report Post »  
    • nappy
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 4:08am

      with respect again, not buying ANY of it. It is a myth. Just be good ,help where you can and be honest. That is all anyone needs.

      Report Post »  
    • delhoghe
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 4:58am

      Okay Nappy.

      Report Post »  
  • nappy
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:55am

    Rabbis are concerned? What?

    Perhaps if they treated their women as equals and cared for them more? Or if they set them free to secular atheist if they wish and still loved them as much?

    Frankly I am more concerned about religious brainwashing than anorexia. There is a bigger problem with that than forcing children from early ages to follow ancient religious, confusing, hypocritical theology.

    Report Post »  
  • riseandshine
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:43am

    who the frig cares

    Report Post » riseandshine  
  • BoilitDown
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:25am

    To me, this is just more evidence that humans are evolving in the wrong directions. There could be hundreds of reasons why this may be occuring, but the signs are everywhere.

    Report Post »  
  • Sam Brown
    Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:06am

    I pity women so concerned about looks and money but failures with the heart.

    Sammy

    Report Post »  
    • Showtime
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:17am

      Copy that! What’s on the inside is more important than the appearance of the wrapping.

      Report Post » Showtime  
  • delhoghe
    Posted on April 12, 2011 at 11:55pm

    If Jewish culture would accept that it’s alright for a jewish girl to grow up to be a waitress, or cashier, or secretary, or housewife, or any other occupation besides a lawyer,actress, journalist,archaologist, doctor, director, senator, or professor. Maybe if Jews understood that they don’t always have to be the master of the Gentiles they could be friends with the societies who have taken them in and shown them kindness.

     
    • confederacyofdunces
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:15am

      I live inNC now but lived in NYC when I was a young adult. Truthfully I was jealous of some of the Jewish kids and resented them because their parents had a higher standard of living and I got a lot of hand me downs.
      This last line in the post that talks about jews wanting to be the masters of the gentiles sounds like me at 12 years old. Ive heard similar things from educated people here in the South. Its BS.
      I’ve met and befriended many Jewish kids who were not part of this secret Jewish group that can only be lawyers or bankers.
      Can a group of people be at fault for holding their kids to a high standard and making sure they go to college? Many Asian kids seemed to study hard as well, are they plotting as well?
      It is the racial bias in this post that when taken to the extreme can lead to hatred and violence. I am not Jewish, I’m Catholic and support the right to a Jewish homeland.

      Report Post »  
    • restorehope
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:37am

      Your ‘master of the Gentiles’ statement is repugnant to Jewish and non-Jewish people alike. (Btw, I am non-Jewish) I am also offended by the condescending statement that ‘they were kindly taken in’. Jewish people were participants in the founding of our country and are not new-to-the-block immigrants who just arrived in America. They, like many other ethnic groups, have made important contributions to our nation. For you to make blanket statements (without any proof ) that they feel superior to everyone else is so wrong.

      Report Post »  
    • delhoghe
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:39am

      CONFED….I was a little strong on the “ masters of the Gentiles” quip, you’re right. The point I‘m getting at is that many Jewish children don’t see their parents coming home dirty from a factory, or a coal mine, or tired from a long day waiting on tables, or working the cash register on a busy shopping day. They see their Jewish family and friends in nice attire and having nice homes and possessions and they see the standard that’s expected of them to live up to. That has to be a lot tougher than being the daughter of factory workers who would not be ashamed to become a factory worker like her parents.

      Report Post »  
    • delhoghe
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:42am

      CONFED…I forgot to add that I love the Jewish people. All of them.

      Report Post »  
    • Libertyluvnmomma
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 10:15am

      Confederacyofdunces- did you read that book? It is one of may all time favorites. It is a brilliant book.

      Report Post » Libertyluvnmomma  
  • teresa2010
    Posted on April 12, 2011 at 11:54pm

    Wow

    Report Post »  
  • teresa2010
    Posted on April 12, 2011 at 11:52pm

    EEKS 0-4 size…

    Report Post »  
  • teresa2010
    Posted on April 12, 2011 at 11:52pm

    0-4 size…EEKS…Know the mother’s size too…So you will know what your bride will look like 30 years from now?

    Report Post »  
  • sing it out
    Posted on April 12, 2011 at 11:42pm

    This is very sad.

    Report Post » sing it out  
  • marine249
    Posted on April 12, 2011 at 11:38pm

    we have to teach our kids right.
    and keep the goverment and hollywood at bay

    Report Post »  
    • Stoic one
      Posted on April 12, 2011 at 11:42pm

      Eat; don’t eat!

      Who should i believe; God or the government?

      Report Post » Stoic one  
    • Showtime
      Posted on April 12, 2011 at 11:43pm

      That pretty much says it!
      No cracks from the peanut gallery.

      Report Post » Showtime  
    • restorehope
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:07am

      It’s probably a problem found in any nationality in all communities. The media has been preaching “thin is in” for decades, and girls have grown up believing it. Look at the rail-thin Barbie and all of the skinny actresses on tv. Those anorexic examples are whom young women are emulating. Until they grow up and realize that they are beautiful inside regardless of their outer appearance, some of them will go overboard on trying to be like their idols. Parents need to pay more attention to what is going on in their own homes.

      Report Post »  
    • Anti_Spock
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:10am

      I have to agree with George Carlin on this one: “I don’t feel sorry for people with food who refuse to eat it (sic).”

      Report Post » Anti_Spock  
    • ManThong
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 12:35am

      Oy vay.. so this is from where all the guilt laden, repressed Jewish commedians are coming from?

      Report Post » ManThong  
    • slimster
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 1:11am

      Jewish families usually do treat their kids right. they have strong traditions that they are supposed to bring them up in, that should avoid problems like this. that is why the situation is so shocking.. These Jews seem to have lost their traditional values.

      Report Post »  
    • walkwithme1966
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 3:42am

      This is not only a problem in the Jewish Community but in other communities also – where teenagers have eating problems – both in eating too much or starving themselves. It is a really bad mental health problems that can get so bad that the kids can die if they don’t get help.
      http://maboulette.wordpress.com

      Report Post » walkwithme1966  
    • Libertyluvnmomma
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 10:13am

      their are several reason for this eating epidemic.
      One anorexia/bulimia is in all the young girl mags and culture. It is not the thin that is in. It the “disorder du jour”
      Physiological issues.
      No matter how “religious” you are, principles founded in self, can lead to this self destructive behavior.
      Girls are disposable. dressing like Brat dolls,promiscuous,birth control, abortion and feminism makes them easy to toss. there’s plenty more for boys to “try”. and those are are just the “Christian” girls.
      There is nothing to cherish in a mouthy little Snooky.
      Proverbs 31.

      Report Post » Libertyluvnmomma  
    • independentvoteril
      Posted on April 13, 2011 at 4:28pm

      Think it’s bad now WAIT until MICHELLE gets done with them.. our kids will feel guilty about eating ANYTHING.. have you seen her girls??? they could use a good meal..

      Report Post » independentvoteril  

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