Revelations that shook the community have sparked a quiet revolution, backed by leading rabbis: Sexual abuse is being discussed and bookstores sell tailored guidance for children. But adequate treatment for survivors remains far off.
The main auditorium at Beit Shemesh's cultural center was packed. It was July and the children were on vacation, but 450 mothers had taken time out of their busy schedules to attend. Psychologists, social workers and other speakers took the stage one after another, all of them ultra-Orthodox women.
There were musical interludes between the talks, but the women hadn't come for a show. Some had brought notebooks and were carefully jotting down the main points. It isn't every day they get to attend a conference devoted to teaching children in the Haredi community how to protect themselves from sexual abuse.
The conference was being held for the second consecutive year. Advertisements inviting mothers to attend had appeared in local newspapers, carefully worded for their readership. A special message from Rebbetzin Leah Kolodetsky, daughter of the late Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the former leader of the Lithuanian Haredi community, was also screened onstage. She urged the women not to hesitate to seek professional help when needed. Participants left deeply moved. Several described what they had heard as "lifesaving."
Among the hundreds of women in the auditorium, the vast majority from the Haredi mainstream, two stood out. Their black headscarves and distinctive clothing identified them as members of the hardline, insular Toldos Aharon Hasidic community in Jerusalem's Mea She'arim neighborhood. After the conference, they approached the organizers and tearfully described widespread abuse in their community.
"They begged us to come to the neighborhood and teach them how to protect children from sexual abuse, but also admitted that the rabbis wouldn't allow it," said Rachel Jacobs, a specialist in healthy sexuality and sexual abuse prevention who spoke at the conference....
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