Leibman is a case in point. She was murdered the night before she and her husband were supposed to separate, pending a divorce. Finally, because batterers are rarely held accountable, leaving an abusive relationship may mean that a woman must give up her circle of friends or place in the community. The sad truth is that we often do not believe the woman. After all, her husband may be a pillar of the community, or perhaps battering is just too painful a subject for us to think about.
Violence is a learned behavior.
It is hard for children in violent homes to learn trust or empathy. Not only are children subjected to domestic violence robbed of their childhood, it is much more likely that these children will become abusers or victims as adults. The organized Jewish community needs to bring the issue of domestic violence out in the open, to accept its presence within our families and work to eradicate it. Our rabbis need to speak about the issue from the bimah. The Bay Area Jewish community can take the necessary steps to stop the cycle of violence.