What we can learn from Monica

Our magazine staff had lots of fun spotlighting pop culture and entertainment in our October issue–rising stars on social media; what’s trending in film, TV, and fashion; and what people are talking about in the larger zeitgeist.

We hope you’ll find the stories entertaining, but there’s one thing you won’t find–mean-spirited fodder.

And here’s why: Kindness, as we all know, is core to our Jewish value system, whether we’re interacting one on one or through a wider platform. When it comes to mass communication, we’re taught not to gossip or shame others. More specifically, the Torah prohibits us from engaging in rechilut , untruthful speech, or lashon harah, truthful speech that might malign someone. Jewish thought, in fact, considers publicly humiliating someone a serious crime.

For years, the name Monica Lewinsky was synonymous with public humiliation. But last month, 25 years after she became a household name for all the wrong reasons, she was lauded in the media.

After the recent death of Kenneth Starr, the prosecutor whose probe uncovered her affair with President Bill Clinton, she tweeted: “…My thoughts about Ken Starr bring up complicated feelings…But of more importance, is that I imagine it’s a painful loss for those who love him.”

Her words showed restraint, grace, and class, and exemplified one of the many ways Lewinsky, who is Jewish, has reclaimed her story. It’s taken a long time, but she somehow has triumphed over her past personal hell.

When the scandal broke in 1998 at the dawn of the digital age, Lewinsky became the first ever target of cyber-bullying–before we could even name it. She was relentlessly shamed in the media for years, the butt of cheap and vulgar late night talk show punchlines.

In 2005, a broken Lewinsky–who later admitted to almost taking her own life–retreated from the American spotlight and escaped to London.

She reemerged almost a decade later, managing to reinvent herself. Today, Lewinsky has been trying her hand as a Hollywood producer, executive producing a documentary examining shame and cancel culture, and serving as a producer of a limited drama series last year about the scandal.

Outside of rehabilitating her own image, Lewinsky has used her unique vantage point and platform for a greater good–to denounce bullying. She is a crusader against a “culture of shame,” as she puts it in her 2015 TED Talk, and a champion for younger victims of online harassment.

In 2010, years before her public reemergence, she learned about Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University freshman whose roommate filmed him on a webcam engaging in sexual relations. The video went viral, and vicious online harassment ensued. Days later, Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge.

His death resonated with Lewinsky, and marked a turning point in her journey. His loss, in part, compelled her to “bring a purpose to her past,” as she wrote in a 2014 Vanity Fair essay. It was, tragically, too late for Clementi, but Lewinsky knew she was meant to help other young victims of online harassment, and maybe even save a life–considered the highest value in Judaism.

A decade later, there is so much more work to be done. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for people, ages 10-14 and 25-34, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That’s, in part, why JUF recently launched its Mental Health Initiative to support our community’s growing need for mental health services. Fueled by the 2022 JUF Annual Campaign, the initiative will invest $2 million over the next two years to enable more community members–particularly young people–to access the resources they need to improve their mental health and well-being.

Because all human beings deserve health, happiness, and respect. After all, as our tradition teaches us, we are all made in the image of God.

Stay tuned for how JUF is shining a light on the mental health of our community in the year ahead.