Bat Melech meets a vital need in the Jewish community. Many gedolei hador (religious leaders of our generation) have recognized and endorsed our vital work.
Rabbinic and Jewish communal endorsements include:
Rav Shlomo Moshe Amar
Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky
Rav Elchanan Perets
Rav Shmuel Slotki
Rav David Yosef
Rav Ovadia Yosef (zt”l)
Rav Yehuda Yosefi
Rebetzin Leah Kolodetsky, (daughter of Rabbanit Kanievsky, zt”l)
Members of our staff meet with the Rebeztin on a regular basis to get advice and assistance from one the spiritual guiding lights of our generation.
“The only consensus of the Torah world is one of total intolerance of a husband’s violent behavior, and that a violent husband should be dealt with in the most serious manner possible.” Rebetzin Leah Kolodetsky
Read about Rebbetzin Kolodetsky’s visit to our shelter in the February 2014 Newsletter.
Recommendation of the Rishon L’tziyon and President of the Torah Sages Council Rav Ovadia Yosef (z”tl)
My heartfelt blessings to the Bat Melech organization for battered women which, under the administration of rabanim, assists women and tries to establish domestic peace while providing them with advice and grants – all according to the Torah, and in consultation with Torah scholars.
May they be blessed for many years to come with goodness, happiness, wealth, success and all the best.
Read the original recommendation
Recommendation of Rav Shlomo Moshe Amar, Chief Rabbi of Israel, Adar 2005
To my brothers who wish to contribute for the good of the people. I request that you donate generously to the important organization, Bat Melech, headed by Rav Noach Korman (may he be blessed with peace and long life) from the holy city of Jerusalem, who has undertaken to help religious women in distress and has compiled a booklet called “Bat Melech’s Cry for Help” with clarifications regarding the honor of the woman whose tears are found “under the Holy Throne.”
It is a great mitzvah to support this organization with a good and generous spirit. “Etz chaim he la’machazikim bah, vetomchehah meushar” (The donors will be blessed by the Almighty with good fortune.)
With blessings,
Shlomo Moshe Amar
Rishon Lezion and Chief Rabbi of Israel
Recommendation of Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky
“Domestic Violence in the Jewish Home”
Remarks by Rav Kamenetsky at a Bat Melech event, New York, December, 2003
Domestic violence is a very hurtful subject. Women who have not experienced it say, “I wouldn’t stand for that.” People who haven’t been through it ask the victims, “Why don’t you get away from him? You’re suffering? Get away!” These are normal reactions.
When you hear about a wife being beaten, isn’t that how you react? That’s why people don’t care about this issue. They think, “help yourself,” but,we have to understand the situation in which the battered woman finds herself. First and foremost, we have to understand that she doesn’t want to leave Why not? That’s the question. She’s in love with her husband and doesn’t want to leave. At the same time, he’s abusing her — psychologically, mentally, and financially. And if the husband drinks, there’s the potential for an outpouring of violence.
Once, I got a call at 2:00 am from a colleague because a woman from his congregation had been beaten by her husband and came to the rabbi’s house. He called me because he was at a loss of what to do. I told him to keep the woman in the house until the husband came and agreed to see a psychologist. He must promise that, and you have to see that he follows through.
An hour later, I got a call from the woman; it’s now 3 in the morning. She said, “Rabbi, the rabbi told me to stay here, but I want to go home.” I said, “You want to go home? You know what happened in your home, and it’s not the first time! Why do you want to go home?!”
Why does she want to go home? Because a man who abuses his wife creates a certain amount of insecurity for her. He inculcates this in his wife so that she loses all her friends. He takes her away from her family, too. He tears her away from her family. He wants to be the dominant person. He wants to control her. And he does control her. We know that, because she wants to go back. She wants to go back because he makes her promises. Every time, he makes promises. How many promises?
That is the reason. There is a certain amount of insecurity the woman feels, and he magnifies that insecurity so that she thinks she can’t exist without him. He makes her feel dependent financially by withholding money. And he makes her feel dependent emotionally, by taking her away from her friends, making sure she contact her friends.
I read an article a few years ago about a woman who unfortunately was killed by her husband, rachmana litzlan, because she didn’t run away. Her mother was asked why she didn’t leave before this happened. She answered that her daughter couldn’t go away. He threatened her all the time. He threatened to kill her, but she couldn’t leave.
That is the situation. And that is the reason that the woman does not run away. She has nowhere to run. She is treated so bitterly that she is torn away from her family, her friends, financially held back, and she simply has nowhere to run. She feels so insecure; has such low self-esteem. If she can get away from him, and get support from the outside, then she would be able to function.
This is such a sore subject, so painful, for a person to lose so much self-esteem. This is the greatest pain a person could have. Helping this person is so important. It is mamash like saving a life: a mother, the children, the whole situation. With psychological help for the husband, perhaps it is possible even to bring back the family. But doing nothing, it is not possible.
This is the mission of Bat Melech, an organization dedicated to battered women.
What can we do for the women of Bat Melech? What can we do for the husbands? Here is the situation where we have Bat Melech, which is dedicated to the battered women, but what can we do for the husbands? How can we help?
We have to bring people back to their own feelings, to their own understandings, to a level of respect for each other as human beings.
It is such a zechus, such a mitzvah, to save a soul.
Saving one soul is saving a whole world. And Bat Melech gives us the opportunity to save many people: the women, the children, the whole family.
Rav Shmuel Kamenetsky has served as Rosh Yeshiva of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia for the past 50 years. He is a member of the Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah and serves on the Rabbinical Board of many worldwide organizations, including Torah Schools for Israel, Torah U”Mesorah, and the Association of Jewish Outreach Professionals. A renowned leader of Diaspora Jews, his Torah wisdom and practical advice reach communities locally, nationally, and worldwide.
Harav David Yosef
Rav of Har Nof, Head of Beit Midrash Yehave Daat
Jerusalem, May 2, 2004
My dear and noble friend and companion, a G-d fearing, learned, educated and very intelligent man of considerable achievement, one of the select few, Harav Noach Korman,
Much peace and salvation I come with these words to express my appreciation for your great and blessed work in the organization of Bat Melech, which set its goal at caring for and treating unfortunate women who sorrowfully are in great distress in their relationships with their husbands, who as a result of which are forced to leave their homes and oftentimes suffer great and indescribable abuse, while you concern yourself with their welfare and well-being, rescuing the oppressed, and doing whatever you can to bring peace to their home – all this while consulting with Torah scholars and experts in the matter.
I hereby give him my heartfelt blessings that he succeed in all his endeavors, with many years of life, satisfaction and pleasure from all his offspring, Amen.
With respect and loyal friendship,
David Yosef
Rabbi Yehuda Yosefi
Rabbi Yehuda Yosefi is a charedi Lithuanian rabbi who lives in Bnei Brak.
I hereby give my endorsement of the organization that you run, called “Bat Melech” which assists women in distress regarding the relationship with their husbands.
Sadly, sometimes things reach violence and physical and emotional abuse towards women and children.
I know that you operate with total devotion, quietly and modestly and out of the purpose to help and repair.
Your professional work is done by workers who are ·Yere’ot Shamayim” [G-d fearing], and all through continuous consultation with rabbis, in the torah way.
May Hashem give you much success.
With blessings,
Yehuda Yosefi
Rav Elchanan Perets
Rabbi of Beit Shemesh
and Head of Rabbinical Courts
February, 2005
I had the honor of seeing the booklet, “The Cry of The Jewish Daughter”, that was written by my learned and intelligent friend, Harav Noach Korman Shlita, a man of considerable achievement, who is totally dedicated to bringing a cure to the daughters of Israel, and the contents of the booklet is true, written in good taste and arranged in proper order.
The painful matter of beatings and abuse must be fundamentally treated and this booklet serves as an important step in making people aware of the severity of the prohibition and to prevent many misdemeanors.
May G-d strengthen the hand of the author in all his endeavors and in this booklet and may he succeed in saving the oppressed from his oppressor and for this may he be blessed with the blessings of the prophet Yeshayahu, “Az yibaka keshachar orcha”, to those who break the power of evil and in that way help the needy.
With blessings from the Torah,
Elchanan Perets
Rabbi Shmuel Slotki
Dear Bat Melech and adv. Noach Korman,
I would like to thank you for the devoted care you have provided to S. Without your assistance, the process of receiving her Get would certainly have taken a long time and cost much more.
The legal assistance and emotional support you’ve given S have become for her a source of strength and power in dealing with her aggressive husband and with the distressful times that have made her life so difficult.
We as a community at Kibbutz Ein Hanatsiv have taken her under our wing, but without your help her situation would have been very different.
It warms the heart to see that there are people who are willing to give a hand to others, to women in distress, for no financial compensation, out of a true desire to help and with a big Kiddush Shem Shamayim.
Keep up the Chesed and Mizvot and yeshar koach!
With much appreciation and blessings,
Shmuel Slotki Rabbi of Kibbutz Ein Hanatsiv
