fbpx

Using Flyers to Fight Sexual Abuse in Haredi Community

More than 850 people have donated over $77,000 to raise awareness and break the silence about sexual abuse in the Haredi community.
[additional-authors]
January 13, 2022
Jasmina81/Getty Images

I’ve been an Orthodox activist for over 10 years now, and the past few weeks have been among the hardest in all that time. Chaim Walder, the formerly beloved Haredi author and trusted therapist, was exposed as an alleged serial rapist and predator of children and women. 

In late December, a rabbinic court in Israel heard testimony from 23 witnesses. Soon after, Walder was found dead, having taken his own life, causing an earthquake throughout the Haredi community. 

I am not Haredi, but I and my organization, Chochmat Nashim, work closely with members of that community when our interests align or when assistance is needed. Chochmat Nashim focuses on fighting extremism, which is most often sourced in policies and social trends toward women and children. While we primarily raise the alarm and take action surrounding the erasure of women and women chained in marriage, we have also run campaigns for breast cancer awareness in the Haredi community, where screening is lower, so that women can know the signs, get screened, and save lives.

After Walder’s suicide, some Haredi parents were shocked to discover that instead of teaching children about safety, and the importance of speaking up if someone abuses them, schools were teaching that Lashon Hara, slander, kills. The claim was that exposing Walder resulted in his death, so it would have been better to say nothing. The most prominent Haredi papers treated Walder as a holy man in his death, and he was honored by thousands at his funeral.

Hila Hassan Lefkowitz, deputy director at Chochmat Nashim, is Haredi. She told me, “All I can think about is the young boy in heder (religious school) who has been hurt and who upon hearing ‘slander kills’ from his teacher, is so glad he never told anyone, and resolves to keep his secret forever. I can’t get him out of my mind.” 

She and a number of other courageous activists decided that if leadership and educators were not getting the message out that victims speaking up isn’t slander, then they would do it themselves. And so began a quiet but fierce fundraising campaign via Paybox to raise money for flyers to be distributed on Haredi streets.

Without traditional or social media, Haredim receive information via their own papers, schools, and synagogues. Most of these were not covering Walder and sexual abuse in the way we know it needs to be addressed. Walder was not just an author; he worked for the city of Bnai Brak, wrote a weekly column, and hosted a radio show. He was, in short, a celebrity, and one trusted to care for children.

The Haredi community at large was outraged over the silence regarding Walder’s alleged abuse, and blaming those who spoke out against it turned out to be too much to bear. 

The Haredi community at large was outraged over the silence regarding Walder’s alleged abuse, and blaming those who spoke out against it turned out to be too much to bear. Donations poured in from within and without the community.

When it became clear that a proper fundraising platform was needed, Chochmat Nashim (which is an official Israeli NGO) joined as a partner in the campaign. It has always been our stance that when there is pain in the Jewish community and we can do something about it, we will. 

And so, 320,000 flyers were printed. On the one side is the image of a girl whose mouth is being forcibly covered by a man wearing a bracelet, worn by so many religious children here, which says, “Slander doesn’t speak to me.”. 

On the other side is very sensitively written information about the Torah imperative to not stand by while someone is being hurt, on how sometimes people use positions of trust to harm others, and that it is not the victim’s fault.

Throughout the country, 150 volunteers, myself included, distributed the flyers in the hours before Shabbat.

Throughout the country, 150 volunteers, myself included, distributed the flyers in the hours before Shabbat. The press has been eager to interview the Haredi activists behind the campaign, but the activists decided to let the campaign speak for itself. I will not reveal who they are unless they change their minds, but part of the reason they do not want to identify themselves is the culture of silence and shame surrounding the Walder affair and abuse in general. 

Nonetheless, more than 850 people have donated over $77,000 to raise awareness and break the silence about sexual abuse in the Haredi community.

All funds raised for this campaign go to this cause and this week (January 7), 700,000 flyers are being distributed across the country by hundreds of volunteers, with information for children on how to stay safe on one page, and words from Torah scholars and rabbis on the importance of believing survivors and speaking out against abuse. 

I truly believe this is one of the most important things I will ever have the privilege to be part of. This was proven to me when I received a phone call because of the flyers. A young woman told me that she had been abused, and she hadn’t felt able to tell anyone in the two years since it happened, because she didn’t think she’d be believed. And now with these flyers, she feels someone will believe her.

Maybe this will trigger an end of the culture of shame and silence surrounding sexual abuse. 

This is the exact reaction the activists behind the campaign are working towards. Maybe this will trigger an end of the culture of shame and silence surrounding sexual abuse.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Print Issue: Got College? | Mar 29, 2024

With the alarming rise in antisemitism across many college campuses, choosing where to apply has become more complicated for Jewish high school seniors. Some are even looking at Israel.

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.