The old bromide that Jewish men don’t batter their wives is about as true as the notion that there are no Jewish alcoholics, observed feminist activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin.

“Jews are not immune, whether they’re Orthodox, Reform, unaffiliated, or anything in between,” Pogrebin said. “In fact, horrible acts of domestic violence are occurring behind closed doors in the community — including those with mezuzas on the doors.”

More than 100 members of the community — almost all of them women — turned out to hear Pogrebin’s presentation at The Jewish Center in Princeton on the evening of Oct. 25. The program, Misery Beyond the Mezuzah, was an initiative of Project SARAH, the domestic abuse prevention program of the Jewish Family and Children’s Agency of Greater Mercer County.

Princeton University’s Center for Jewish Life/Hillel joined JFCS and Jewish Women International in sponsoring the appearance by Pogrebin, who is a founding editor of Ms. Magazine and the author of several books, including Deborah, Golda, and Me, Getting Over Getting Older, and a novel, Three Daughters.

“This is part of our Project SARAH outreach, education, and awareness program,” said Debra Levenstein, director of prevention and support services for JFCS and coordinator of the evening.

For the first time, Levenstein noted, Project SARAH will sponsor a Passover seder next spring exclusively for survivors of domestic violence. “I imagine it will be small,” she said, “and we will see people we have never seen before.”

JFCS executive director Linda Meisel said she was thrilled with the large turnout for Pogrebin’s presentation. “With every Project SARAH event we do, we reach another group of people and another group of people, in waves throughout the Jewish community,” she said, “so more and more people become aware, and as they become aware, they provide support and assistance to women who are victims.”

Also on hand for the program was Courtney Esposito, director of education and training for Womanspace Inc. in Trenton, a nonprofit agency that has trained members of the Project SARAH Task Force.

“JFCS never forgets,” Esposito said. “This is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and they always do something that will highlight the issue and keep it in front of people’s field of vision. They do, I think, a phenomenal job.”

Pogrebin, who described herself as a synthesizer on the issue of domestic violence, said in an interview that she spent 10 months researching the issue in preparation for her keynote address at the Second International Conference on Domestic Abuse in the Jewish Community sponsored by JWI last year.

“Now, of course, I’m hooked,” she said. “It becomes such an urgent issue once you immerse yourself in it. It opens your eyes to things."

In her presentation, Pogrebin sought to open her audience’s eyes to the harsh reality of domestic violence.

“Relationship abuse is not just battery, but emotional torment, sexual abuse, and financial deprivation,” she said. “The statistics are quite staggering. One in four women will experience abuse in the United States. A woman is battered every 15 seconds in the United States, and battery is the leading cause of injury for women.

“Socioeconomic advantage allows some men to commit relationship crimes without suffering the consequences,” she added. “Most Jewish men are far less likely to be accused of battery, and they serve less time in jail.”

In fact, Pogrebin said, the shanda factor — the matter of shame — often causes Jews to remain blind to the prevalence and magnitude of domestic violence in the Jewish community.

“In the Jewish world, the sad truth is that the number of victims of domestic violence is greater than the number of victims of anti-Semitism,” she said. “Yet they get only a fraction of the attention and resources of the Jewish community.

“Think how quick Jews are to decry anti-Semitism in France and how intense and widespread our community’s outrage was when Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan insulted Jews,” she said. “Now think how long it’s taken to acknowledge the abuse happening in Jewish families.

“Just imagine how our community would respond if Jewish men were assaulting each other instead of their wives,” she said. “Would the community ignore the black eyes and broken bones? Would they proceed as if nothing were wrong? I don’t think so.”

She is not surprised by the fact of Jewish domestic abuse, Pogrebin said, but she is surprised that Jewish history and heritage have not made the community more sensitive to the issue.

“What we need in our community,” she said, “is to put our money where our values are.” She described some cases across the country where Jewish agencies and communities are doing just that — funding domestic-violence hotlines, making grants to combat teen dating abuse, providing resources to survivors, and hosting conferences on the issue.

“All Jewish institutions and lay leaders must become involved in this struggle and be willing to spend what it takes to get the job done,” she said. “All denominations should cooperate in developing a cohesive strategy. We need a community-wide awareness program. We need the entire Jewish leadership to sign on to zero tolerance for domestic abuse.”

For information about the upcoming seder for survivors of domestic violence, contact Levenstein at 609-987-8100. For more information about domestic violence in the Jewish community, go to the Web site of the Jewish Institute Supporting an Abuse-Free Environment.