Groups of drunken teen shul-hoppers have triggered alarm bells with the Jewish Community Council of CSG.
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CSG director Gavin Queit said Simchat Torah alcohol abuse was rife again this year and has become an annual problem for parents, shuls and for all those with the community's safety at heart.
Teenagers abusing the tradition of merriment linked to rejoicing in the Torah on Simchat Torah placed themselves and others in danger in what Queit called a "festering" annual problem.
Young people arrived at shul, either already drunk or in possession of alcohol. They were school-aged people, who were basically shul-hopping, looking for alcohol.
"I believe the shuls acted very responsibly. They weren't doling out alcohol to youngsters, but I did notice that at some shuls, youngsters were arriving drunk or with alcohol on them."
Queit said youth drunkenness on Simchat Torah has become a yearly problem "that's really festered".
"Parents have to be educated that when their kids tell them they are going out shul-hopping on Simchat Torah, a large portion of them are actually going out to get drunk." [ajn]
You must all be smoking crack!!!
Do you know what kind of damage excessive alcohol even once or twice will do to the liver, pancreas and brain of child (included teenagers and younger) who’s body has not finished developing and growing. The reason the law state you need to be 21 or older is by then you body is fully developed and can tolerate the alcohol so much more.
Numerous studies on underage drinking show the excessive damage and the addictiveness later on in life. Look at http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/AboutNIAAA/NIAAASponsoredPrograms/underage.htm
It is the responsibility of every frum adult, whether it is your child or not, to protect the yiddishe kids of today, so that they can grow up to be healthy adults in the future. The teenagers who drink today, may develop addictions and diseases and in ten or fifteen years when things go wrong everyone will say, “It’s such a rachmonis”.
We need to prevent future tragedies from happening now while we still can!
I remember looking down last year to the mens section and this man was vomiting buckets. Yes, he was married, and maybe even had a child or two – but I wonder if he was 21. (He didn’t look it)
For those that say it’s only once a year, alcohol is addictive.
there is no inyun to get drunk on ST, only Purim
to b.a.mentsch: 1) the amount to invalidate a Kohen from Duchening is not that much, 2) where does it say that one must be drunk for Musaf? 3) even if you (I presume an adult) do want to get drunk, what does that have to do with kids getting drunk? 4) to the first anyon: we have a rule “safety takes precedent over forbidden things” (sacanta chamira m’isurah)indeed we need to take care of sinas chinum, etc. but safety does take precedence
No drinking?
I thought that as long as we duchen birchas kohanim before the Hakafos (shachris), we can be drunk at Musaf
in our shule we noticed young teenagers from other shules arriving before the aliyas that promted the gabbai to make the following announcement from the beemeh ‘we will not allow anyone underage to consume alcohol and we ask all the adults if they see something say something’ after that the teenage group left.
1:51, thanks for trying to educate the local ignoramouses. Also, 19 or 20 is STILL underage.
Anon,
Did you look at the original post? It mentioned *school age* children. That’s not 19 or 20. That sounds more like 14 or 15 to me.
The Wolf
Anon #1 – You are right there are major sinas chinum & loshon hara problems among us. Maybe part of the reason is how alot of the adults want to be seen as “cool” and “with it”. And part of that is they themselves drinking & allowing their children to drink.
Listen wolf, underage doesnt mean 14 year olds it means 19 20 year olds, now thats not that underage, but the adults in the shul should be responsible if they go over the top, they can drink a little just to get a buzz. Im an adult myself and iI have no prob with a 20 year old getting a little buzzed on simchas tora and be more joyous. So I would blame the adults in the shuls. In our shul there was drinking but with a shiur. P.S. cool pic
A neighbor of my sister’s allowed a number of teens to drink at her house a few years back. One of them got terribly drunk and became injured. The State of NJ fined the parents, removed the mother’s NJ State Teacher’s license and put both parents on probation.
Because of the hefty fine and that loss of the mother’s parnassa, the family declared bankruptcy and lost their house.
Children do not have access to alcohol unless an adult GIVES it to them. Adults who provide alcohol to children are risking jail time, fines and the loss of their livelihood.
I know of at least one shul that had their catering license pulled because of the Board allowed underage drinking in the shul.
Alcohol and drug problems in the frum community are NOT a once or twice a year problem. There are houses in my neighborhood where teens go every Friday night where parents allow them to drink and do drugs. This is a huge problem that if we do not take care of it, we will all face the disgrace of having law enforcement do it for us.
What a chillul Hashem!!!
Sorry, (first) Anon, but I’m going to disagree with you. Underage drinking *is* a serious issue. At a shul in my neighborhood this year, Hatzoloh had to take a kid away to the hospital because of underage drinking.
Certainly there are other problems in our community, but to ignore all others until sinas chinum and loshon hora are cleaned up is not the right approach.
The Wolf
Seems that they same problem exists in Australia as in the US
Just looking for problems, there are other and bigger problems to worry about rather than once a year kids shul hoppin drunk. Let them enjoy it on simchas torah. Work on public sinas chinum and loshon hora.