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Preferences for Intervention and Prevention among Ultra- Orthodox Jewish Women Effected by IPV: An In-Depth Examination

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - IPUOIPV (Preferences for Intervention and Prevention among Ultra- Orthodox Jewish Women Effected by IPV: An In-Depth Examination)

Reporting period: 2020-08-01 to 2021-07-31

This project involves studying preferences for seeking help among ultraorthodox Jewish women from the large Jewish community in Montréal and Israel.
The first phase of the research was held in Canada (outgoing phase). This summer I started the second phase, back to Europe at the university of Haifa.


What is the problem/issue being addressed?
The problem of domestic violence in vulnerable minorities and ethnic groups is getting increased attention in interdisciplinary research.This study aims to address preferences for getting help in minority women that is known as a hard to access population. Usually, individuals from the Frum and Chassidic (ultra-orthodox) community do not participate in research due to religious reasons. Furthermore, women who are dealing with IPV do not tend to expose their family story to strangers.

When they do seek help, they do not refer to government social services for domestic violence victims because of religious reasons (mainly not exposing the family story and problems to outsiders). As appears from the initial data collection, there is also a matter of trust issues that prevent victims from seeking help from government services).

As a researcher coming from the Jewish orthodox community, we had the privilege to create connections with several community leaders from Montréal and the area, to build trust and present the importance of this project for promoting the wellbeing of women and families.
Because of living with my family in Cote Saint Luc (CSL) during the outgoing phase last year (suburb next to Montréal), we had the chance to get involved in social activities for women, families, to participate in holidays activities and to join the prayers at the synagogue. After almost a year in CSL, we moved to Outremont, to the Chasidic area, and had the chance to participate in public activities, and to take part as a volunteer in a charity Jewish organization (MADA community center).
Those joining activities allowed me to get involved in the community and to build trust (otherwise it could have been much difficult to receive cooperation and targeting women to participate in interviews).


Why is it important for society?
Since the access for studying this minority is relatively difficult, this study enables insights into studding a hard to access population.

We think that there is a major lack of researchers and scholars from the Ultra-Orthodox community that can explore social and internal problems from within. And thanks to MSCA- IF 2020, we could make efforts to contribute an insight into exploring Ultra-Orthodox IPV survivors.

At the end of the project we will provide a reflective document (intending to publish it) about the experience of collecting data from this minority-women during the current pandemic.

The objectives of the action are as follow:

- To identify perspectives of intervention and prevention strategies among UO abused women that were or currently are suffering from IPV.
- To examine the women preferences, and suggest theoretical and practical recommendations for practitioners, researchers and community leaders (i.e. rabbis) as well as for policy makers.
- To develop conceptual framework (theory) for studying and understanding this topic
- To organize the dataset derived from the interviews for in-depth examination which would be addressed in several peer- reviewed manuscripts
Work performed from the beginning of the project

- 15 recorded and transcribed interviews
- Initial literature reviews for the first and second manuscripts
- Presentation for the invited talks about the research purpose and aims (which had been conducted in two private houses at Montréal last winter)
- Document addressing the circumstances of coronavirus that have an impact on the lives of women interviewed in several aspects of their lives


When living in CSL and Montréal I have made the following activities for the purpose of disseminating the research purpose and expected results:

- Joined the community of synagogue ‘Sharrey Tefilla’
- Joined the women what’s up group ‘Neshey Tefilla’
- Have taken part of the monthly activities of the community and also remote activities (during times of stay at home and lockdown orders).

- Conducted two invited talks in front of women from the Chabad community and Moroccan community. The talks were conducted in two houses of women who agreed to participate in the
research (the women have been recovering from abuse by their spouses).
- The lessons from our meeting were outstanding, and I can definitely say it raised acknowledgement of the prevalence of IPV among our community, and the importance of finding strategies to prevent it.
- We are still connecting through our what’s up group, and sharing ideas and information about new directions of coping with IPV in Montréal Jewish community
- Submitted abstracts to two conferences along with my doctorate supervisor prof. M.M. Haj Yahiya (the abstracts were based on my latest doctorate publications).
Progress beyond the state of the art:

Training activities:

- Have joined CRCF at McGill (center for research on children and families) as an associate member.
- Participated in an on-line Ethics course as suggested by the ethics committee of the beneficiary, University of Haifa.
- Participated on remote webinars about qualitative inquiry, analysis and interpretive inquiry
- Have taken an on-line guidance about how to appropriately use the zoom app, for inviting and managing meetings and appointments
- Have taken an on-line guidance about how to use N-VIVO 12 (qualitative digital software) for coding and sorting qualitative data


Transfer of knowledge
- Have been contacted by three social work students from the orthodox community in Montréal (they contacted me for asking advice about graduate programs in McGill).
- All three women are coming from disadvantage backgrounds and I feel responsible and privileged to help them promote their chances for seeking higher education.
- Available on what’s up and zoom (by appointment only), as well as by email for Q&A for women from the community in Montréal who would like to seek advice and information about academic studies


Expected results until the end of the project and potential impacts

- Conducting another 8 face to face interviews (with Israeli women) and 7 remote interviews (women from Montréal)
- Conducting focus groups (2 face to face and 1 remote)
- Transcribing the data
We will take an on-line guidance of MAXQDA software version 2020
- We will use Colaizzi’s seven-step content analysis method to analyze the dataset with the help of MAXQDA
- Analyzing the dataset
- Preparing manuscripts for publication
- Promoting my career development: applying for academic positions in universities and colleges (revising my CV and academic file)
- Building the project website )
- Preparing opinion article for two local newsletters (Our-CommUNITY) of the Jewish community in Montreal
- Running two intersectional groups in Montréal and in Israel (the groups would be conducted with rabbis, social workers, leading women) that will meet 4 times each year to discuss ways to intervene, along with other
relevant problems in the community that needs solutions in the societal level
website