Jerusalem – Six Hasidic Teachers At Belz School Accused Of Abusing Students

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    Six teachers of an ultra-Orthodox school in Tel Aviv are brought to a court hearing at the Tel Aviv district court on August 2, 2016, The six teachers accused of physical abuse of pupils, and one of them in sexual abuse. Photo Roy Alima/Flash90 Jerusalem – The abuse of 22 children, ages 3 to 10, enrolled in a Belz Cheder in Tel Aviv, has come to light after 11 years with the indictment of six teachers on various charges of extortion, sodomy of minors, indecent assault, and abuse and assault of minors.

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    Beginning in 2000 until 2011, the 22 children were taught by the defendants named in the indictments, and were subjected to “daily physical and emotional violence,” according to a report by YNet News (http://bit.ly/2aypMWr).

    The victims referred to the school as “Bergen-Belsen,” a nod to the Nazi concentration camp, and called the main defendant, Avraham Mordechai Rosenfeld, “Rosenazi.”

    The 49-year-old defendant is charged with the worst of the abusive acts, including beating the students with wooden boards, binding the students to their desks or chairs with cable ties or rope, and forcing them to stand during class with both their feet and hands tied. While they remained bound, Rosenfeld put spoons filled with soap or black pepper in their mouths and prevented them from rinsing their mouths afterward. He also prohibited his victims from using the restroom, forcing them to urinate on themselves while sitting in their chairs.

    For his victims, ages 7 to 10, Rosenfeld took them to a special school lounge outfitted with beds where he allegedly sexually assaulted them. The room also contained a closet which held candy confiscated from students. After sexually abusing the students, Rosenfeld waited for them to stop crying, then gave them sweets and sent them away.

    Rosenfeld is also facing a charge of animal abuse for his role in beating a cat with an umbrella in front of his students. The cat had wandered into Rosenfeld’s classroom, whereupon Rosenfeld beat the animal and then murdered it by pushing the cat out the window where it fell to its death.

    Rosenfeld’s behavior is consistent with the abuse and terror he rained down on his wife and children at home. One of his children alleges he was abused by his father for years before he finally left home. His wife has said Rosenfeld controlled the food in the home, and threatened to divorce her and prevent her from seeing her children if she spoke up about the abuse.

    The other five defendants named along with Rosenfeld are Yisrael Haim Shapira, 65, Haim Fishgrond, 69, Moshe Hirsch, 39, Menachem Alberstein, 63, and Avraham Pinchas Deytsch, 53. Many of Rosenfeld’s co-defendants have confessed to some of the “less serious incidents,” but have indicated that they were only meant as a joke. The co-defendants were released from custody with limitations for the remainder of the court proceedings. Rosenfeld is being held in detention.

    An attorney for some of the defendants, Zion Amir, said, “Some of the people I represent completely deny the allegations against them. There is going to be a long trial that will acquit whoever needs to be acquitted from this important community.”

    Yehuda Fried, the lawyer for Rosenfeld, said, “The acts described in the indictment are exaggerated. Regarding his family, the accusations are completely made up by those seeking to get between him and his wife.”


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    34 Comments
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    7 years ago

    This is just so shocking! I can cry…

    FBF37
    FBF37
    7 years ago

    The more yeshivish/frum/chassidish school you go to the better the chance your children have to getting abused. Of course it can happen in other schools. But the fear factor and the abuse you will get if you were “mesira” is unbelievable.

    I blame this is on our so called leaders. I include Agudah in this and their Motzes!! Sorry but it’s true. Very sad there is no one you can trust anymore. As a parent I do not trust the leadership. Very frightening.

    Then they sit there wondering why people go OTD. I believe adults go OTD since there is such a lack of leadership in such matters.

    puppydogs
    puppydogs
    7 years ago

    Why is this so prevalent in Chasedshi Yeshivas? Disgusting is all I have to say.

    7 years ago

    To crazy to be true….

    Butterfly
    Butterfly
    7 years ago

    This is not a joke. This is very serious. Some of these children may be left will serious mental problems. They probably will not want to go back to this school. I would not blame them. This is Israel, the prblems will not be hidden from the Government!

    7 years ago

    Six teachers… These might be just about all the teachers in the school!

    misslydia128
    misslydia128
    7 years ago

    Horrible they are desperate enough to hire teachers whose only credentials are are their Belz affiliation.

    davidoff
    davidoff
    7 years ago

    Here is the deal: the abusers got to be confined to a mental ward, with twice daily torture shocks, it isn’t cruelty since they sure claim insanity defenses, but the “cover-uppers” those scum got to be locked up in a max prison and daily be abused by the gangs in there, that shall send a clear message.

    bubii
    bubii
    7 years ago

    Here we go again with theese hassidishe monsters teaching our kids and abusing them for years,and no one saying anything or doing anything about it until the children who are deathly afraid of the grownups come forward, unbeleivable how sick people can be.

    mrhanono
    mrhanono
    7 years ago

    True or not, we don’t know.
    I wonder why they choose to cover their faces with a Tallis or Arba Kanfos?
    It’s another Hilul HaShem.
    They should cover their faces with, lehavdil, their shirts or even a dirty rag.
    The same goes for r berland.

    jack-l
    jack-l
    7 years ago

    Horrible.. if found guilty they should be put away. On this site I cant say what i would do to them or anyone that touched my child. The cheder should be permanently closed or burnt to the ground. There is nothing more horrifying than this ongoing child abuse by these rebbes.
    Hashem Yirachem.

    shadag95
    shadag95
    7 years ago

    Without justifying any wrong doing, Lets clarify the following:
    * 6 people where charged, 5 of them where charged for physical abuse (not sexual) for hitting children etc. which is the norm in most Chasidishe schools Only ONE PERSON WAS CHARGED FOR SEXUAL ABUSE (innocent until proven guilty).
    * The School is called BELZ, but,
    1) The School is not owned by BELZ (its owned by a Vaad that includes R’ Elish Englender (Machnovkeh Belz).
    2) The School is not under the supervision of Mercaz Mosdos Belz not ברוחניות ובגשמיות (which controls all Belz Mosdos).
    3) 90% of staff are not Belze Chasidim.
    4) 4 of the 6 arrested are not Belz.
    5) 100% of children in school are not Belz.
    6) Of the few so called Belz Chasidim living in Tel Aviv and members of this Kehila, a big majority are Misnagdim of Belz.

    So before you idiot’s bash Belz for this terrible story that happened in a School not under Belz control, make your on cheshbon hanafesh on the past occurrences in your community.

    stamm
    stamm
    7 years ago

    Its hard to brlieve that so many teachers in one school were so evil. I dont trust the israeli newspapers.i hope this is not true,like for how long did this abuse go on and no parent did anything or none of the kids spoke up?? If 6 classes were suffering dont u think there would be at least ywo parents that noticed??Nautious nsutious if all of this is true!!

    Bluebekitche
    Bluebekitche
    7 years ago

    Now i know why they have the tzitzis outside, just have to wait for the next bust to figure out the big hat

    Liepa
    Liepa
    7 years ago

    First off, where were the parents, yes the parents, this going on for years mind you, there must have been some communication between son (even at ages 7 – 10) and parents, either about wetted pants or about enduring a mouthful of pepper for an extended period of time, something.

    It’s impossible for this kind of torture to have been endured by so many young boys, over many years without a mention by an of the children to any of the parents,
    Either this whole thing is concocted or………………

    One thing though, if this would have been done to me or someone from my immediate family, at a certain point in my life, I would have purchased a firearm
    and I give you three guesses as to who I would use it on, and the first two guesses don’t count.

    7 years ago

    As a rebbi for over thirty years I am deeply offended by many of the commentators.Why do you have to use a broad brush to bad mouth rebbeim in general and communities in particular. As a long time rebbi many new rebbeim come to me for advice. I am proud to say that all these rebbeim are idealistic, giving, caring and want to help their students be the next generation of “oivdai Hashem”. But the new rebbeim do have to contend with the “yes” generation. These are children of parents who never heard the word no. When I began teaching giving a potch was the go to method for classroom even in the litvesher yeshivos. In the years since not only is giving a potsch forbidden but even to give a knip or a glet on the cheek is frowned upon. Nowadays at PTA and on report cards rebbeim and teachers have to whitewash the truth. We cant give a D or even a B- any more everything has to be sugar coated. Are our children better off today then they were 30 years ago? I doubt it.

    7 years ago

    During the time a certain individual was being accused by a number of former students of abuse. This person contacted me about one of his accusers who was in my day camp class that summer. If that boy told me it was night now I wouldn’t believe him. I don’t know what happened with this boy and this individual but I did learn that not every accuser has to be believed.
    I also had a personal story in my first years of teaching second grade. My principal came to me that a mother called that her son said I hit him. This happened again two more times. I finally told the principal I don’t hit so maybe ask the boy what’s going on. He called the boy out and very matter of fact said when you walk around the class during davening and learning you bang into my desk. This was the “hitting” he was talking about.

    7 years ago

    It’s time for the Jewish schools, especially haredi ones to address the underlying homosexual component in all these cases. It seems as if the sexual abusers are merely latent homosexuals. What is the haredi school system going to do about this? And where are the parents?

    RocklandRes
    RocklandRes
    7 years ago

    Of all the blogs and comment sites, there are none with worse spelling and grammar than this one.