Treatment Centers

A new group is emerging as a growing segment struggling with eating disorders: Orthodox Jews. The trend has recently been identified as the number of eating disorders patients who report themselves as being observing Jews has increased at treatment centers.

Dr. Ira Sacker conducted a study in 1996 that showed the upward trend in eating disorders among members of the Jewish community. The study found that about one in 19 Orthodox Jewish teenage girls living in Brooklyn were diagnosed with an eating disorder. The general population is about 50 percent below that number.

Experts believe that the problem has been long hidden among the Orthodox Jewish community.

The Renfrew Center is a Philadelphia-based treatment facility that operates several locations in the United States. The Renfrew Center reported that 13 percent of its patients at the Florida and Philadelphia treatment locations identified themselves as Jewish, which was a significant increase from 5 percent identified three years ago.

As a result of the increase, the Renfrew Center has initiated a unique treatment track designed for Orthodox Jewish patients.

Adrienne Ressler is Renfrew’s national training director. She says that the center has been challenged by the intricacies of treating Orthodox Jews with an eating disorder. Not only is the disorder complicated by the observance of kosher food requirements, but also social pressures.

The ideal pursued by Orthodox Jewish women, for instance, is to be a young slim bride, who quickly matures into a young mother with a growing family of children. Jewish men are on the lookout for a wife who is extremely thin, wearing a size 0 or 2, and encourage a standard that cannot be achieved for some women without unhealthy eating behaviors.

In an unprecedented step, the Orthodox Union has sought the help of the Renfrew Center to help raise awareness of the problem among the Jewish community. The two groups have combined efforts to host conferences and workshops in New York and Bethesda, Maryland.

Further examination of the eating disorder symptoms exhibited by Orthodox Jews may help explain the increasing numbers of women struggling. Certain foods are highly controlled in Jewish observation, possibly lending to an increased control over all food and eating behaviors.