Set in a Jewish household and written in the first person, Yeshiva Girl by Rachel Mankowitz is a novel on the difficult topic of incest. It is well worth the read.
The book’s main character, Isabel, is a 15 y.o. girl grappling with the range of emotions the trauma of her father’s sexual advances produced in her. Not surprisingly, the sexual abuse and family dysfunction profoundly impact her sense of self-worth.
Rachel tells this poignant story in a simple, straightforward manner. We experience Isabel’s isolation, her confusion and inner turmoil. We come to know her sorrows, anxieties, and disappointments. We feel her suppressed rage.
What distinguishes this book is the author’s examination through Isabel’s eyes of the place of religion in sexual abuse. Isabel’s father professes to be an observant Jew, yet clearly feels no compunction about molesting her. Her mother and grandmother have not rescued her.
Where is God in this? Does religion play a role in subjugating women? Is justice even possible? Isabel strives to answer these questions for herself.
In one particularly powerful passage, Isabel reflects on the biblical rape of Dinah (Gen. 34: 1-4), and we hear her own anguish:
“First he takes her, by force I’d assume. He grabs her because he wants her and who cares what she wants. But then he lies with her. It sound so gentle. He’s seducing her now. She doesn’t know how to react. Should she still be afraid of him or is he safe now because he’s being nice to her? Maybe he’s telling her how beautiful she is and how smart and special and how he just wants to be with her forever. And it seems real. Maybe he really loves her and values her. But then he humbles her. It was a trap all along. She was the only one who forgot that. For a moment she forgot that he was a rapist and started to believe she had a choice and that’s when he gets her. Because not only has he raped her but she thinks it’s her own fault.”
Yeshiva Girl is in no sense graphic. Readers should not, however, be put off by the book’s characterization as Young Adult fiction. The topic of sexual abuse is treated in a thoughtful and mature fashion.
Yeshiva Girl by Rachel Mankowitz is available on Amazon. Rachel, herself, blogs at https://rachelmankowitz.com/.
FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT: https://alawyersprayers.com
ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse 
Thank you for this wonderful book review! I am a child abuse survivor also. I am new to your blog, I hope you are well today! Xo
I am so glad you liked the review! I happen to be an incest survivor, myself. Christ has, however, sustained me. May He bless you, also. ❤
Good review, Anna. That the book examines “the place of religion in sexual abuse” is a needed layer, since I would imagine religion/social standing is a useful cloak to hide the abuse from society, even justify it, as horrifying as that sounds. The complicity of adult family members is also something I’ll never understand.
These are all issues with which abuse victims wrestle.
After a few years, life, faith, curiosity, the search for TRUTH, and research led me and/or brought me some circumstantial observations; and one of them is,
Satan has a preference for children.
That makes complete sense. Children are vulnerable.
I believe,
God allows evil, to provoke NAUSEA!
It’s a disgusting situation for that child!
I am not an expert on Islam. As far as I know, the Quran does not specifically discuss pedophilia or sexual abuse of children. However, the Quran does say at Surah 34 that Allah knows the child in the womb.
I mention this because you cite an instance of Muslim pedophilia, and because pedophilia seems to have been normalized in the Arab world. See, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/apr/25/middle-east-child-abuse-pederasty.
I seek objective TRUTH based on the teachings of the Holy Bible, which shaped the civilized world, as we know it today, and was defined thousands of years before Islam.
The Holy Scriptures are a universal consensus, and DO NOT make any reference to Islam and its leaders as a doctrine to be followed.
On the contrary, It condemns any type of personal and material worship of other gods.
And the biblical GOD OF HEAVEN is absolutely against that practice.
As a Christian, too depresses me to see thousands of people milling around and worshiping a stone cube covered in a black cloak; women that risk being killed if they show parts of their body. An Iranian woman was killed for showing her bangs from her hair, but they allow mating with child girls.
Many today believe that all religions are equally valid — or that religion should be abolished entirely. Christ, however, said the He alone is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14: 6). None come to the Father except through Him.
Sadly, there are millions who do not know Christ. We must pray that God will open their eyes, for He does not want any to perish (2 Peter 3: 9).
Distressing as the condition of the world may be, we cannot let anger at sin and injustice consume us. Christians are not called to bitterness (Eph. 4: 31; Col. 3: 8) which is a corrupting poison (Acts 8: 23; Heb. 12: 15). The only way to combat bitterness is to forgive, even as Christ forgave us (Eph. 4:32).
Meanwhile, we are to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, and plead for the widow (Isa. 1: 17; James 1: 27). God will judge the wicked, rest assured (Eccl. 3: 17).
Of course, everyone depends on God’s mercy to understand Christ.
“All that the Father gaveth me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37
All religions are valid is a premise ECUMENICAL around the Roman ANTICHRIST.
Only CHRIST is accepted as MEDIATOR between God and men, and the rejection of Jesus as the ONLY SAVIOR generated all religions and cults based on human and/or demonically inspired laws and ordinances, as is the case of Islam, for example.
Jesus Christ is the LIGHT, and to ignore this fact is to incur dysfunctional confusion. Not even plants do it.
I am not certain whether your criticism is directed at me personally or the world at large. As should be clear, I was not attempting to argue that all religions are valid, only to point out the those who do not know Christ are in darkness.
I refer to ecumenical thinking,
all roads lead to God, it disqualifies CHRIST.
You speak with great authority. But we are not to become self-righteous (Rom. 10:3). Our righteousness is a filthy rags compared with God’s (Isa. 64: 6).
Remember that Christ came to save the world, not condemn it (John 3: 17). While we are not to compromise God’s law (Deut. 5: 32; Ps. 119:3), we are to do good even to those who harm us (Matt. 5: 43-45; Luke 6: 35-36).
Forgiving those who have caused us grievous harm is impossible without the grace of God. Yet the concentration camp survivor Corrie ten Boom forgave her jailer. The theologian and pastor ultimately hanged by the Nazis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote, “This is the supreme command: Through the medium of prayer we go to our persecutors, stand by their side, and plead to God for them.” The founder of Voice of the Martyrs tortured for years by the Communists, Richard Wurmbrand, wrote that “looking at men…not as they are, but as they will be…I could also see in our persecutors a future Apostle Paul…[and] the jailer in Philippi who became a convert.”
All of us are sinners, in one way or another (Rom. 3: 10). We should hate sin, but we must love sinners and seek their redemption.
This does not imply that there are no consequences for sin or that God ever abandons victims. Ours is a God of justice, as well as mercy. The scales will balance — if not in this world, then the next.
Thanks for your observation!
“You speak with great authority.”
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”
2 Timoteo 4:2-4
–
The south of Brazil is going through a spiritual wash, due to the infestation of satanic temples and freemasonry.
I have written, for Brazilians,
GOD’S OBJECTIVE IS SAVING LIVES!
It is not politics, religion, money, luxury, and other human and satanic lusts.
Unfortunately, you appear not to have read the rest of my reply. I am not one to defend child molesters, and I wholeheartedly agree that sound doctrine is no longer tolerated by the culture. But your tone smacks of self-satisfaction. That is hardly likely to draw sinners of any type to repentance which, I assume, is your goal. Christ showed more compassion (Luke 5: 32). You might consider that.
Thank you for your attention and your observations regarding what I write.
For me, it has been a long road to understanding CHRIST; and it is a history that extends far beyond me, obviously.
I really don’t have much tolerance for DECEIT, for obvious reasons.
I suffered, and I see people suffer because of the LIE.
But I continue trying to be better and to practice the faith I believe in:
loving and doing GOOD; despite my limitations.
Surely, I have many limitations of my own. May God keep His hand on your life.
Thank you and blessings!!
Thank you so much!
My pleasure, Rachel. Writing — whether in a fictional or non-fictional format — about a traumatic experience we’ve had is a way of exorcising our demons. I hope that writing this book has helped you. I am sure your book will help others.
I hope so!
Anna, thank you for sharing your thoughtful and concise book review. God bless you for your faith and grace with challenging issues.
Thank you for your kind words, Manette. God bless you, too. ❤
Vielen Dank, liebe Anna, dass Du uns so intensiv informierst. Ich wünsche Dir das allerbeste, liebe Grüße, Marie
Ich wünsche dir alles Gute, Marie. LG, A. ❤
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