Published: 26 October 2021
Last updated: 4 March 2024
What do you tell Haredi boys who are attracted to other boys? Meet Dr Tali Vishne, one of the most in-demand psychiatrists in Israel's ultra-Orthodox society
IF THERE’S ONE thing that’s clear in a conversation with Dr Tali Vishne, one of the most influential and in-demand psychiatrists in Haredi society in Israel, it’s that with her there are no clichés, no sacred cows and no predictable answers. Her point of view is indefinable, she seems to be both conservative and liberal in the same breath, a groundbreaking woman who distances herself from feminism.
To secular ears, some of what she says is grating, but there’s no doubt that it causes the listener to think. This in fact is my experience in listening to what she has to say about sexuality in Haredi society, about homosexuality, about pedophilia and also about the phenomenon of leaving religious society.
She speaks with unusual openness about what happens in her treatment room and doesn’t balk at addressing even the most sensitive issues. Nor is she reluctant to talk about a disturbing investigative report two years ago in which she played a starring role, when psychiatrists were documented giving young ultra-Orthodox men medication to suppress sexual desire. Yes, there is such a thing, she says, and there are cases in which she does that; she will also explain why.
Vishne, 50, runs a private mental health center in which most of the patients are religiously observant, around half of them Haredim. Situated in Petah Tikva, Tali’s Home, as the center is called, has treated thousands of people over the years and receives hundreds of requests for help every day, not only from within Israel, but from the United States, Europe, Brazil, Australia and Ethiopia.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic the numbers have soared to 600 calls a day. She established the psychiatric clinic of Mayanei Hayeshua medical centre in Bnei Brak, a main health-care provider for the Haredi community in Israel. She’s also waged a struggle (in which she was successful) to have a woman permitted to head a department in a Haredi hospital.
FULL STORY Gay Orthodox Jews turn to her for help; sometimes she prescribes chemical castration (Haaretz)
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Photo: Dr Tali Vishne (Daniel Tchetchik)
