Join Isabel Vincent, acclaimed author of Bodies and Souls: The Tragic Plight of Three Jewish Women Forced into Prostitution in the Americas, and Lori Cohen, Director of the Anti-Trafficking Initiative at Sanctuary for Families, in a discussion about sex trafficking.
Tuesday, January 10th, 2017 at 6PM
Hosted by Heidi and Richard Rieger
15 Central Park West
In the late 19th century there were more than 20,000 young Jewish women and girls from Eastern Europe working as prostitutes in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Desperate to escape a hopeless future in Europe’s urban ghettos and rural shtetls, they were lured to the New World with promises of a better life. Instead, they were forced into prostitution by a notorious criminal gang of Jewish mobsters, cut off from their families and the Jewish community.
Isabel Vincent’s book, Bodies and Souls, tells the remarkable story of three such women and brings to light a dark and hitherto untold chapter in Jewish history.
Vulnerable women and girls are still trafficked in this country and abroad. In New York State alone, thousands of women and girls are victimized each year. Lori Cohen, Director of the Anti-Trafficking Initiative at Sanctuary for Families, provides survivors of sex trafficking with resources to help them escape violence and build stable lives.
Hosted by NCJW NY’s Advocacy Leadership Committee and the We Were Slaves Coalition, join us for this fascinating discussion of sex trafficking in the previous century and today.
Books will be available for purchase and a reception will follow the event. Space is limited.
Click here to reserve your seat.
Isabel Vincent is an investigative reporter for the New York Post and an acclaimed author. Ms. Vincent won the National Jewish Book Award in Canada for Bodies and Souls and the Yad Vashem Award for Holocaust History for Hitler’s Silent Partners.
Lori Cohen is a lifetime member of NCJW NY, and a board member of NCJW Inc., where she chairs the Trafficking Action Network. Her work is reported widely in the media, most recently in Newsweek Magazine’s article, “The Fight to Shut Down Backpage.com, America’s Top Online Brothel,” and on WPIX-TV.
We Were Slaves: The Jewish Community Unites Against Sex Trafficking is a multi-organizational anti-sex trafficking initiative. Spearheaded by the National Council of Jewish Women New York, these organizations have come together to address the critical issue of sex trafficking in the community. We Were Slaves intends to educate, advocate and create a dialogue about the impact sex trafficking has on our community and what we can all do to prevent it.
Click here to reserve your seat.