'My childhood was stolen from me': Pupil of illegal Jewish faith school reveals physical abuse
A former student says days were long and punishments hard in an illegal school system ignored by state authorities...
I was a pupil at illegal ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools in Hackney and was left alone and vulnerable in schools, while authorities failed to protect me. Because life inside these schools was all I knew, I didn’t even realise how wrong my experiences were until I left aged 18. Now I can see how my childhood was stolen from me – both by these illegal schools and by authorities who have no grasp on or interest in protecting children like me.
My school was a cabin. The roof was falling in with water and there were two toilets for 300 children. There was no concept of health and safety as our teachers told us, ‘God will protect you’ from anything bad happening. There was no playground, just a large concrete space. We spent break times playing with the wheels of old cars, or would kick around plastic bottles as makeshift footballs.
Other than occasional short breaks, we would spend entire days studying religious texts, normally starting at 6am and finishing at around 10pm or 11pm. Lessons were only in Yiddish and I left aged 18 unable to speak more than a few sentences of English. You sit in one seat all day, being taught pretty much the same thing every day. For young children, it’s very hard. But you have to do it, out of fear.
I was beaten physically by teachers and saw children beaten on a daily basis. We were hit with all sorts of objects. They had sticks which were colour coded for different types of bad behaviour and we would be hit with them; a red stick for one transgression, a yellow stick for another. I saw children really quite badly hurt. One got their knuckle broken. Others were marked with bruises. There is an internal first aid centre in Stamford Hill for Orthodox Jews. Children would be brought there to be tended to quietly so that it wouldn’t come out.
I heard that some teachers molested children but police or authorities were never called. Instead, the teachers would be moved on to another school and it was hoped people would just forget about it. There are no checks on the teachers for having criminal records or a history of abusing children and I fear that certain types of people might be drawn to the ‘profession’ to exploit children who they know are vulnerable and isolated from authorities, and who they know they won’t be held to account for abusing.
Teachers were used by the wider community as contact points for arranged marriages. Parents who were considering making a match with their daughter and a boy would approach a teacher and ask them to give them a reference about what a particular boy was like. Once the parents and teachers agreed on a marriage, the boy would be told and then expected to go through with the wedding when he turned 18. We just saw it as normal.
I finally left the community when I was 18 after being pressured to enter an arranged marriage. When I left, it was so difficult. I could only speak Yiddish and, despite living in London my entire life, I couldn’t really have a conversation in English. I could do little more than ask for directions and ask how much things cost in a shop.
Looking back, I feel my childhood was stolen. Ultimately the blame comes down to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community who run these schools and send their children to them but I feel a lot of the blame is on the authorities. They are the ones who are the guardians of children and they’ve stolen my childhood, stolen my rights, stolen any chance to have real choice and opportunity in life.
Every day that I was at the school, the council and the Government could have acted but didn’t. I think that sometimes they misleadingly believe that by intervening they will be seen as intimidating minority communities, but they are doing exactly the opposite. They are being discriminatory against Jewish children and anti-Semitic by not intervening. They’re saying that children like me don’t have the same rights as any other child because we come from the Orthodox Jewish community.
I’ve been lucky that I was able to get out of the community and make a new life now. But most of these children are not able to break free of these schools and will never be even aware of how much has been taken from them and how much their lives have been disadvantaged by it, that’s the saddest part.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/my-childhood-was-stolen-from-me-pupil-of-illegal-jewish-faith-school-reveals-physical-physical-abuse-a6965536.html
3 comments:
To you with respect,,(Paul mendlowitz) as a father of a victim of a terrible sexual abuse case, I need to wake you up a little bit, it looks like that your still sleeping and you where never notified that sexual abuse happened every where in the world, but especially in//schools//yeshivas//mosdos hachinuch//churches// //shulls// mikvas// work places// and who was behind it,?, of abusing the precious children,?? //rebbis//dayunim//askunim//teachers// principles// doctors//popes//cardinals//bishops//private tutors// fathers//grand fathers//grand grand fathers//family members// incest// unfortunately it was and its still a uncontrolled sickness on the world ,and in the nicest Jewish frum Hasidic communities,,and in the biggest Catholic community, and unfortunately nobody is willing to talk about it Or to do something about it, not only that But we have to fight tooth and nails that the law off statue of limitations should be changed,? And who is fighting against the victims and the advocates that the law of statue of limitations should not not be changed,?, shockingly its the Catholic church and unfortunately together with the Jewish frum Hasidic communities,,shocking,
We have another problem, the last years and so, we had people making millions and millions of dollars. ((By unfortunately robbing away money what had to go to victims)) by calling themselves,((advocates for children victims of sexual abuse)) or creating a bogus organization like (( voice of justice)) and other bogus organizations,,one of them is the bogus person calling himself, ((mark meyer appel)) he claims for the government that he is running a organization called voice of justice he claims for the government that his organization helps out ((victims of sexual abuse)) with//therapy//psychiatrist//psychologist//and other kind of services, he doesn't do a shit for victims,but he will only let his voice being heard if he could be on live,.T.V.OR ON LIVE MEDIA, OR IN THE NEWS PAPERS he loves and he is sick he craves to be in the center of attention,,but it hurts to see such a man ,who lied time and time again ,that he is helping out victims of sexual abuse,,he is just making millions and millions of dollars from the government by lying to them,,nothing more,, so we ask nicely from mark meyer appel, please stop calling yourself ADVOCATE FOR victims of sexual abuse,,and close down your fake phoney bogus fraud organization before we would really give you over to the authorities ,,(( from crying victims of sexual abuse and there parents)) stop making money on our names
Eliyahu Yisroel Levav. Or Ilya Lvov. He often wore an unyeshivish checkered shirt and straw hat. A wooden Russian accent. Only a few years in Baltimore with his wife and small kids. A bushy beard. He was mesmerized by Chassidism and he translated Breslover books into Russian. Kiruv, he lived it. He wanted to talk to the rabbis involved in Kiruv.
He met rabbi Moshe Eisemann. Specially visited Yeshiva Lane to introduce himself. He shared with rabbi Eisemann that it was a bad idea to separate little kinderlach going to American yeshivos from their parents in Russia who had no chance to reunite with them for many years to come: Look at how Yaakov Avinu suffered without his dear son Yosef! He could not understand why rabbi Eisemann suddenly had a fit of anger. (He knew nothing of rabbi Eisemann's cash-&-sex machine.) Later he could not understand why rabbi Eliezer Eisgrau refused to accept his kids into his Jewish school; why he was told by many that his family was no longer welcomed in Baltimore.
He could not believe the fact his friends shared with him: that rabbi Eisemann kept telling people that "wicked" Levav murdered someone, and rabbi Eisemann himself had to keep that "secret" to somehow protect the community. After their car was gone, Levav could not bear seeing his wife pushing a grocery cart around the neighborhood and his suddenly lame son and rejected daughter following her. Then they vanished forever.
I doubt Eliyahu Yisroel Levav murdered anyone, but rabbi Moshe Eisemann certainly slaughtered one more family.
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