Sex abuse offences in ultra-Orthodox Israeli cities are reported to have
spiked in the past decade. The men of G-d have been on the rape and child molestation trail. Haaretz reported that 'There Isn't One Boy Who Wasn't Sexually Abused' in Jerusalem’s Extreme Haredi Neighborhoods."
Chaim Walder is a well know public figure both within Israel and inside the Orthodox religious faith. He is a rabbi and "children's book author, newspaper columnist and rock star across all strands of Orthodoxy."
Rumours about Walder's paedophiliac predilections had been rife for years. He had been reported to Israeli police a decade ago but the allegations not pursued. It took the Haaretz investigation to kickstart a serious response from significant players and institutions in Israeli society who were jolted into sitting up and listening. One woman described in considerable detail to Haaretz how Walder repeatedly raped her while she was a child. Another victim was told by him how he had “a lot of credit with God” while he abused her.
He also stands accused of paedophilia and the sexual abuse of numerous women in a case that has rocked Israeli society, and which saw him lose his weekly column in Yated Ne'eman, "the most ideologically rigid and doctrinaire newspaper in Israel" where he was its most celebrated writer. The rabbinate decided it was time for him to walk the plank. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Tzfat and a member of the Chief Rabbinate council said:
We did not draw a conclusion solely on the basis of what was written in the newspaper. We received very serious testimonies from the men and women who were harmed ... we also saw court rulings that referred to Chaim Walder's very terrible involvement in families. Let's put it bluntly - some families broke up because he did forbidden things with the woman and destroyed the family. These are things that came before a court and were clarified ... Things are very clear .. It's not based on an article in the Haaretz newspaper. It's based on a lot of testimonies, documents, transcripts, court records. Pictures, recordings. Unequivocal things.
Abroad, Eichlers Judaica, a major Haredi bookseller in Brooklyn, undertook to no longer stock or sell works by the holder of the Prime Minister's Child Protection Award, 2003. Lehmanns in Gateshead did likewise.
Rumours about Walder's paedophiliac predilections had been rife for years. He had been reported to Israeli police a decade ago but the allegations not pursued. It took the Haaretz investigation to kickstart a serious response from significant players and institutions in Israeli society who were jolted into sitting up and listening. One woman described in considerable detail to Haaretz how Walder repeatedly raped her while she was a child. Another victim was told by him how he had “a lot of credit with God” while he abused her.
Orthodox Jewish crimes against children while shocking to some are not news. Earlier this year Haaretz also exposed a prominent orthodox serial abuser, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, another high profile luminary in the Jewish Orthodox world. Elsewhere he was described as "the Haredi Jeffrey Esptein." The Orthodox equivalent of Islamic religious police, the Haredi modesty patrols whose job it was "to apparently enforce a code of modesty among the Haredi public through violence and intimidation" seemed to find nothing immodest about this thug's behaviour.
was convicted of abusing and ordering the abuse of eight children, which included beatings with clubs and hammers, kicks to the head, severe shaking, burning, being handcuffed and stuffed in a suitcase, food and sleep deprivation.
In 2013 A religious counselor in New York City’s ultra-orthodox Jewish community was slapped with 103 years jail time. He had abused a child who had approached him to discuss her faith.
The difficulty for people seeking to highlight and confront the rapacious rabbis and their ilk has been underscored by Sam Kellner whose experience at the hands of the Hasidic community was meant to deter victims and their families from coming forward. "Institutions like Agudath Israel of America still require as their stated policy that a rabbi be consulted before abuse is reported to secular authorities." A number of years ago in London it was reported that the leader of Britain’s Haredi community had "been caught on video advising an alleged victim of sexual abuse not to report the claim to police.”
Abuse victims and their families have been expelled from religious schools and synagogues, shunned by fellow ultra-Orthodox Jews and targeted for harassment intended to destroy their businesses. Some victims’ families have been offered money, ostensibly to help pay for therapy for the victims, but also to stop pursuing charges, victims and victims’ advocates said.
Cover up and blame the victim. As with the Catholic men of God, the Jewish men of G-d delight in what for them are the sordid pleasures that flow from being part of a child rape cartel operating on a global basis. With the fall of Walder, the Infallible Rabbis are being hauled to account.
⏩ Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
Not just the rabbi's either, this vile creature was a teacher in RE and the school Principal in Melbourne's Adass Israel school. She legged it to Israel when the story was about to come out and was shielded by that community whilst there. She fought tooth and nail for 6 years to prevent her extradition until Tel Aviv finally had enough and shipped her back.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.timesofisrael.com/melbourne-court-says-malka-leifer-to-face-trial-on-70-charges-of-child-sex-abuse/
Steve - read about her case while writing up the above piece. Vile. It is not that there is a higher rate of abuse within the Orthodox but their insistence like other religious groups to be some sort of moral authority is nauseating. Priests, Imams, Rabbis, have no more knowledge of a god than you or I have. We all know nothing about any god. They just fabricate an insight and built a morality around it it as a means to giving them an advantage over their neighbour.
DeleteWhat really boils my piss though is the amount of cover-up and shielding that their own community will afford them, and for the absolute worst of crimes. The Adass actually forbid reporting to gentile police in these cases and threaten ostracization to those who do. Given the intensely insular nature of these communities that fear is all pervasive and palpable. It becomes another method of victim blaming and control.
DeleteA sadly familiar but no less shocking tale of how the patriarchal controls exercised by monotheistic faiths (although polytheistic faiths are hardly free of such instincts I guess) leads inevitably to such large scale child abuse.
ReplyDeleteAuthor Chaim Walder found dead
ReplyDeleteAccuser commits suicide days after Chaim Walder's death
He will continue to torment from beyond the grave.
DeleteBarry - I read in Haaretz or somewhere that the Rabbis were trying to rehabilitate him after his suicide. One of the other leading Rabbi's however made the point that it was unfortunate he killed himself rather than do what the Rabbinate instructed him - which was to give justice to his victims.
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