Twenty-three-year-old Haim (not his real name) never considered himself to be someone who suffered from violence in the religious school or yeshiva he attended. In this, he is not alone: violence in the ultra-Orthodox education system in Israel is not just deeply entrenched, it is viewed by Haredi society as a normative and legitimate method of disciplining students. Even before he started studying at the yeshiva, Haim tells Shomrim, he was warned in the acceptance interview explicitly that the punishment for insolence (“Hutzpa”) was beatings, a threat that was carried out more than once.

Meni Philip is a documentary filmmaker who has collected much evidence of teacher violence in the Haredi education system. His film – “No Child Spared,” or in Hebrew “The Cheder” – was recently broadcast by cable channel Hot 8 in Israel. It provides shocking examples of what children and youngsters experience in Haredi educational institutions. Philip, 57, was a successful Haredi singer who abandoned his ultra-Orthodox lifestyle after marrying and having a family. He has some strong views on the ongoing influence of the culture of violence in Haredi society. “What do these rabbis, these wheeler-dealers and these great scholars all have in common?” he asks in a conversation with Shomrim. “They all grew up going to cheder, they were brutally beaten, they are all traumatized and afraid to raise their heads up even for a single second. They are all that child, who knows that if he does something wrong – he’ll get some.

Philip says that he himself did not even think about the violence he was subjected to until his brother – who goes by the name ‘Little Prince’ Philip – published a post on Facebook in which he detailed how he had been beaten in the cheder. Very quickly, that post led to many other people coming forward and sharing their own stories, accompanied by the #This_is_my_childhood hashtag.

“It opened up a Pandora’s Box. There were so many responses, with hundreds of people testifying about the violence they experienced,” Little Prince Philip says, adding that the rabbis and teachers who beat him never paid for their transgressions. He has a list of the names of the rabbis – some of whom have died in the meantime; others still hold positions in the ultra-Orthodox education system – and describes the incidents when they beat him. “This one beat me like crazy. He’s a real sadist, who likes leaving bruises on his victims,” he says about one of the rabbis. Speaking about another abusive rabbi, he says that “he gave me a deep cut, right next to my eye; he also slapped me one time so hard that he broke my glasses. I still have the scars.” Shomrim approached both of these rabbis and asked for their responses. One of them vehemently denied the allegations, while the other did not respond at all.

“There are incidents that I know are happening right now. Children are being beaten and humiliated,” Philip continues, before going on to tell us about an incident that happened several years ago, when he got a phone call from a child who told him that he was regularly being beaten at school. When the police were called in to investigate, the boy withdrew his complaint. According to Philip, the boy had been threatened with expulsion from school and that his family would be ostracized if he went ahead with the complaint.

As part of the research for this article, Shomrim spoke to several students who are currently enrolled in these establishments. We asked 10-year-old twins from Bnei Brak whether they were beaten. “Yes, all the time,” they replied. “Sometimes it’ll be a slap and sometimes a punch.” When we asked them what they think about this kind of punishment, they shrugged their shoulders. “When it’s necessary, they beat us. There’s no choice.?”

A 7-year-old interviewee from a different school told Shomrim that two of his teachers use physical violence against students. “Why do they beat you?” we asked. “If someone talks during the lesson or is cheeky to the teacher,” is his reply. A 9-year-old from another school says that the children who are subjected to the most violent discipline are those from the special education class, who do not listen to the teachers’ instructions. “They’re not very smart, so they get beaten,” he explains.

“What do these rabbis, these wheeler-dealers and these great scholars all have in common? They all grew up going to cheder, they were brutally beaten, they are all traumatized and afraid to raise their heads up even for a single second. They are all that child, who knows that if he does something wrong – he’ll get some."

In the Torah, Gemara and culture

The perception of violence as something legitimate and even worthy of praise is deeply rooted in Jewish texts. The Book of Proverbs clearly states that “he who spares the rod spoils the child,” which has become one of the most famous quotes in the Bible. In the Gemara, which is studied enthusiastically and closely by hundreds of thousands of students in Israel’s ultra-Orthodox education system, there is a story about a teacher who was fired from his job for killing a student – but was subsequently reinstated because of his ‘special skills as an educator.”

The Vilna Gaon, considered one of the greatest Jewish scholars of all time, once wrote a famous missive in which he shared his advice on how to discipline children: “If they curse, swear and lie, you should beat them and have no mercy towards them.” Maimonides also weighs in on the matter, writing: “Children should be sent to study at the age of around 6 or 7, depending on the strength of the boy … And the teacher will beat them to instill fear in them.” Rabbi Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler, one of the key figures in the Lithuanian Haredi sect, explained in his writings that the purpose of the beatings is to ensure that the child does not grow up to be independent, but, rather, remains subjugated to his parents and teachers.

Violence is also prevalent in modern Haredi literature. For example, in the popular “Tales of the Righteous” series of books for young ultra-Orthodox readers, which is published by Mahanayim, there is a colorful and vibrant story called “Naughty Shaul Yitzhak.” According to the plot, Shaul Yitzhak used to beat animals and so his father decided that he had no choice but to beat his son. The way that the author describes the father praying silently before beating his son and then weeping afterwards, adds a romantic and spiritual layer to the story.

One of the big questions when it comes to violence toward children in the Haredi education system is how the parents respond to the phenomenon. A good example of this can be found in a series of stormy meetings held in recent years by the Prog Forum, which is a forum for progressive ultra-Orthodox Jews who have internet access. At one of these meetings, the discussion was sparked by the mother of one third grader who said that “a good and professional” teacher had been violent toward “an unruly student” and that she was considering moving her child to a different class. Opinions among other members of the forum were divided; some recommended that she transfers her son to a different establishment altogether, while others told her not to interfere. Some even defended the teacher’s behavior. “Currently, the law is monstrous and is very harsh with the teachers,” one of them said. “Think about the educational lesson your sons are getting,” another woman added.

“What can I say about the fact that [teachers’ violence] is no longer acceptable today? Sometimes, one slap puts a child in his place and saves a lot of time,” wrote one parent during a similar discussion last year on another internet forum – the Torah Forum. Another parent added: “I know one violent official who has been in his position for 20 years.” A third parent added: “I believe that I was properly educated thanks to the beatings.”

A 20-something year old rabbi, without any training

Avrumi Kroizer, who was born and raised in the Vizhnitz Hasidic sect, has experienced the ultra-Orthodox education from both sides: as a child and, later, as a rebbe in an afternoon cheder. When he was a child, he says, he was constantly beaten by his teachers, but his mother turned a blind eye to the bruises on his body and his descriptions of the abuse he suffered. His father, he says, was also unmoved by the violence and responded merely by recounting his own similar experiences from cheder in a manner that sounded almost nostalgic.

When we asked Kroizer to describe an incident that affected him, he told us about something that happened when he was 8 years old, when a teacher caught him wearing an IDF soldier’s uniform that he found thrown out on school grounds. “He came up to me and slapped me twice, once on each cheek, in front of all the students in the courtyard," he recalled. But it didn’t end there: after recess, still sobbing, he was taken by the teacher on a humiliating tour of the different classrooms, where students were told about his “crime.” In his own class, he says, his educator also beat him.

According to Kreuzer, throughout his years of study, he either personally experienced or witnessed various forms of violence, such as "finger slapping" and one particularly extreme case in which a relative of his was beaten so severely that it led to a rare confrontation between the parents and the teacher. The child who suffered the beating, he recounted, needed therapy to cope with the trauma inflicted on him.

“I believe that all of that led to some kind of internal damage in me,” Kroizer says. “If someone who is supposed to represent things that are good and full of compassion can beat me, then it leads to a fissure. Moreover, I am afraid of men. For example, I refuse to sit alone in a taxi with a male driver. I travel all over the world with a sense of fear from older people. I’m worried that they could do something to me and that I would not have the ability to resist. I constantly feel like I am naïve and that someone is going to harm me.”

When he was 22, Kroizer started teaching in an afternoon school affiliated to a cheder. It was then, he says, that he came to understand one of the many causes of the phenomenon of teachers’ violence. “I wasn’t given any kind of training before I entered the classroom,” he says. “In my class, for example, there was one boy who needed special education and was very hard to deal with. I personally never beat him, but there was nothing preventing the other teachers from doing so”

Beyond the educational approach that is prevalent in ultra-Orthodox institutions, Kroizer believes, the violence is also the result of the teachers’ way of life and is exacerbated by their daily struggles. “You are tired and you are bothered. The teachers there do not live a good life. Each and every one of these rebbes has got a dozen children to marry off; they are in a lot of debt and have lots of worries. Teachers do not arrive in the classroom with a clear head or a good mood – and they take it out on the children.”

"I am afraid of men. For example, I refuse to sit alone in a taxi with a male driver. I travel all over the world with a sense of fear from older people. I’m worried that they could do something to me and that I would not have the ability to resist."

The Lasting Wounds: How Physical Punishment Undermines a Child’s Ability to Set Boundaries

“Beyond the general negative impact on one’s mental health as a result of physical violence, whenever a person in authority beats a child – no matter in what format, context or educational system – it has very negative and serious implications on that child’s emotional development,” says Shmuel Goldstein, a clinical psychologist. “The moment that somebody has the ability to violate the boundaries of your body, as a child, and can do whatever they see fit with your body, your ability in the future to set boundaries for other people when it comes to how they treat your body is undermined. In these cases, the child finds it hard to internalize the boundaries of his body as his own and this limits his ability to be aware and to protect himself if those boundaries are threatened again in the future.”

These children, therefore, are more vulnerable to various kinds of abuse, including sexual abuse, without having the ability to process and understand the abuse. Since their environment has told them that when somebody does something to their body in the name of whatever ideology or purpose – that it is both acceptable and justified – this distorts that person’s relationship with and connection to their own body. The very same parents who want to protect their children using educational practices that encourage violence toward the children, who see this as the best way to ensure that their children are protected from evil impulses – practices that are, in fact, seen as illegitimate according to religious law – are actually inadvertently increasing the likelihood that their children will be exposed to exactly the dangerous situations their parents sought to protect them from.

Goldstein says that there are other ramifications when parents agree or allow these figures and others to use violence in the classroom. “It leads to a situation of prolonged anxiety, tension and lack of trust in others. The child’s consistent difficulty in protecting himself will make it harder for him to develop trusting, supportive and loving relationships with those around him in the future. Anyone who is lacking that confidence will also lack the confidence to take their place in the world and to progress.”

Moreover, if the figure who is supposed to represent security is an abusive figure, Goldstein explains, the child could find himself again and again in the company of people with similar character traits. “It is possible to develop a fixation with abusive figures, to base one’s life on people like that and thereby to create a self-perpetuating cycle. As part of this cyclicity, the experience of being abused, if not processed emotionally, can become stuck in the emotional system as an inexplicable and unthinkable experience. And as such, they have the potential to manifest in a violent manner; in other words, somebody who was abused is more likely to abuse others. This could happen while the victim is still a child, in their interactions with other children, or it could come to the surface many years later.”

A video of school violence recently published on Telegram

No self-protection education

The responsibility for what goes on in Haredi cheders rest, ostensibly, with the Ministry of Education. However, the ultra-Orthodox education system is convoluted and split between various different levels of state funding and supervision. Nonetheless, nearly all of the Haredi educational institutions enjoy some level of financial support from the state. How, then, does the Ministry of Education ensure that the funds it provides do not go to schools where teachers use violence against the students? The answer is that it does not.

According to attorney Tammy Notev File, head of the Child Protection Unit at the Israel National Council for the Child, it is extremely difficult to deal with instances of violence in institutions that are not directly under the supervision of the Ministry of Education. “Even though there is no justification for it, when teaching staff are not employed by the Ministry Of Education, treatment becomes much more complex,” she says. “There are many ultra-Orthodox educational institutions which are privately owned: there are ‘recognized but unofficial’ institutions and ‘exempt’ institutions. In legal terms, the way that a complaint is filed and the way that the complaint is handled varies from school to school. And when the school is not 100 percent under the supervision of the Education Ministry, things get complicated. There can be no right to education when there’s no protection in the school.”

Shomrim contacted the Ministry of Education and asked to interview the official responsible for the issue. The ministry refused and instead sent a response stating that it views supervision, enforcement and teacher training as vitally important. This may be true of the state-run education system, but the response did not touch on what is happening in Haredi schools.