Fiddler of the Roofies? –
November 3, 2019 – Surely, part of “Freedom Song’s” purpose is to empower those in recovery, whether that recovery be from addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling or really any of the myriad facets of modern life that we might depend on to our detriment. “We touch upon all the different things that are not necessarily drug addictions but are still disruptive behaviors in families and society in general,” Kaminer said. “One of Beit T’Shuvah’s taglines is ‘You don’t need to be an addict to be in recovery.’” But, perhaps a higher priority for “Freedom Song” is to facilitate conversation, particularly among those who constitute a support system.
For too long, Kaminer says, families have felt the shame and stigma of addiction. There was a tendency, because of the attendant social embarrassment, to keep a family member’s addiction quiet and hope no one outside the family found out. Beit T’Shuvah found that Jewish families in particular struggled with this. Initially, “Freedom Song” was to be just one part of a larger non-Beit T’Shuvah production titled “Passover Celebrations,” but L.A.’s Jewish community balked. “Fourteen years ago,” Kaminer said, “a lot of the Jewish community shied away from the material we were discussing. They were hesitant to put it out there because of the subject matter. Which just told us, wow — this really needs to be done.”
