The rabbi who examined the allegations against Velder: "The lives of the victims precede his life"

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the head of the ultra-Orthodox court that dealt with allegations of alleged sexual assault of the successful writer who ended his life, sought to "strengthen the complainants at this difficult time."

The ultra-Orthodox media refrained from elaborating on the circumstances of his death and the background that preceded them, but there are those who call for soul-searching: "What came out of the rendering? An earthquake"

Yaki Adamkar

27/12/2021

Monday, 27 December 2021, 16:56

• Share on Facebook

• Share on WhatsApp

• Share on Twitter

• Share on Email

• Share on general

• Comments

  Comments

"We offered him to fix what he spoiled." Haim Velder (Photo: Official Website, David 25)

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of the city of Safed, today (Monday) expressed regret over the suicide of the ultra-Orthodox writer Haim Velder in the background of evidence that he was sexually assaulted, and said that it was a pity he did not take responsibility for his actions. Rabbi Eliyahu headed an ultra-Orthodox tribunal, which was established to examine the allegations against Velder.

"It is a pity that he chose this path," said Rabbi Eliyahu. "The many victims at this difficult time. Their lives precede his life."

Velder, a well-known ultra-Orthodox author, who has written about 80 books and received the Prime Minister's Award for "Protecting a Child," ended his life today. About a month and a half ago, journalists Aharon Rabinovich and Shira Elek published three testimonies of women against him in Haaretz.Yesterday, the newspaper also reported that the police had opened an investigation following the allegations and that 22 pieces of evidence of sexual assault had reached the special ultra-Orthodox court that deals with the issue.

"Strengthen the many victims."

Eliyahu (Photo: Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel, Flash 90)

Apart from the WhatsApp groups and social networks, the ultra-Orthodox media on the Internet did not mention anything about Walder ending his life against the background of the allegations made against him.

Although in recent years there has been a significant change in the coverage of sexual abuse in ultra-Orthodox society on ultra-Orthodox sites, in the case of Walder this has not been expressed at all.

Under the headline "Shock in the Haredi Sector", the popular website "Shabbat Square" states that Velder "passed away" and that "the sad news of his death was received", along with the fact that he "authored many books for children and adults and served as an educational consultant".

The affair itself is not mentioned at all.

The same is true of the website "In the Haredi Rooms", which reads "sad news" - but no allegations against Velder were mentioned. Only the Haredim 10 website, owned by the Haredi media man David Rotenberg, one of the founders of the Haredi Internet, expressed that he was lifeless "after Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu published evidence against him." In the headline of the article, the site noted that Walder was "the man who influenced an entire generation of children." The almost complete disregard of the liberal media in the ultra-Orthodox sector for the allegations against him can indicate the preferential treatment that Welder received on the ultra-Orthodox street. It is considered a consensus and has gained the proximity of senior rabbis in the ultra-Orthodox leadership. Even after the publication of the investigation in Haaretz, it took days until senior rabbis ordered him to stop reading the books he authored or until the moment he was suspended from his position as a columnist and presenter of a program on ultra-Orthodox radio.

Rabbi Asher Melamed, director of the Israeli Center for Protection, which has been dealing with sexual assault within the ultra-Orthodox sector for more than 20 years, told Walla!

Because the case should be "a mirror for the ultra-Orthodox society and especially for the rabbis," as he puts it.

Melamed explained that "this case was known and the rabbis need to see what happened because we kept quiet and hid. A chain of Holocaust-level vulnerabilities and an entire public that is all shaken. What would have happened if they had dealt with it 20 years ago? Leave police, deal with the problem. Not everything is there It is obligatory to report, but there is a duty to address and say 'no more.' We must learn enough to be silent. "

"There is no compromise in the war on this abomination"

Haaretz's investigation alleges that Velder sexually abused girls for years, while maintaining a revered image. One of them said that at the age of 12 the relationship with him began and that after not long after that he started asking her if she cared to touch his penis. "'It's okay, I have a place in my heart to love both my wife and you. Believe me it's okay, do you trust me?'", She repeated the conversation between them. "At first I would touch him and he would touch me under a shirt and stuff like that, but there was no full relationship."

She further testified that at the age of 13 he informed her that they had to "celebrate" the receipt of her first menstrual period and that he had full sexual intercourse with her at a hotel in Ramat Gan. "I remember the trauma I was after, and I remember crying," she told Haaretz. According to her, Haaretz wrote, sexual exploitation became frequent and the meetings were held on a weekly basis, sometimes twice a week, whether during menstruation or not. "It did not bother him," she says. Another woman testified that when she was 15, throughout a series of encounters Velder took advantage of his status and age, and had regular sex with her in several different places.

However, Velder vehemently denied the allegations and wrote that it was a plot and an "organized smear campaign that was unparalleled," as he put it.

"I turn to anyone who has been exposed to the grave publications against me and shout the cry of Dreyfus who humiliated him in the town square ripped his ranks and broke his sword in front of the masses - 'I am innocent,'" Velder said at the time.

"Please do only one thing: invest some thought and a bit of logic and try to question the terrible defamation and not rush to pass judgment on someone whose whole life and activity has been for children and their rights." "This is a lie that has no atonement and it can be felt that the purpose of the entire investigation was to tattoo the thing that is most identified with me - protecting children, and humiliating me to the ground," he wrote.

More on Walla!

After the investigation into sexual offenses: The writer Haim Velder put an end to his life

To the full article

"How can I deal with claims that I have no details about and I can not understand where they came from and what was in the interest of those who said them? "

However, since the publication of the investigation, much more evidence has accumulated.

Bodies that worked with him began to shake him off, including Kol Chai radio and the newspaper Yated Ne'eman, and he announced his retirement from all his public pursuits.

Three weeks ago, senior dayanim in the ultra-Orthodox community ordered not to read his books until things were clarified.

Earlier, Rabbi Eliyahu called for Velder's books to be taken out of the houses.

"It is impossible to keep in the school of someone suspected of sexually abusing so many women. There is no compromise in the war on this abomination," he wrote.

• news

• News in Israel

• Criminal news and law

Tags

• Sexual offenses

• Shmuel Eliyahu