With masks on their faces, holding signs "I was hurt," "Save me," "Believe me," "Take care of me," about 100 ultra-Orthodox women and girls demonstrated at a rally unparalleled in Israel.
The women, most of them graduates of ultra-Orthodox education or actual students, protested against the continued employment of Zivia Rotenberg as the high school principal at the Maalot seminary in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The extraordinary protest was organized by ultra-Orthodox women and attracted wide media attention.
Protest against the continued employment of educator Zivia Rotenberg, Photo: Naama Stern
The affair was revealed in a comprehensive investigation published in the "Shishvat" supplement about three weeks ago, in which complainants described sexual abuse by Rotenberg over the years during which he was an eighth grader at Beit Yaakov Beit Yisrael.
The women read together, some in real tears, Psalms and held signs with verses such as "And he was a holy disciple" and "Thou shalt not stand against the blood of thy neighbor."
Among the women, there were also complainants who were interviewed for the "Israel Today" investigation.
The use of masks helped them not to be exposed.
"I feel that I am being filled and strengthened by this brotherhood of women, by brave women who have come to support victims they do not know. Women and girls who are aware of the evil and only want to spread good," said one of them.
Zivia Rotenberg (archive), Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Victims of other sexual assault cases within ultra-Orthodox society also participated in the rally.
"We know that you hear the cry and you will not let it die," read Sherry Kreuser, one of the organizers of the rally, the women's demand: "The perpetrators will be immediately removed from any educational position. Modesty and purity. "
She added: "Is it possible that someone who trampled on these values will continue to be a role model? This is absurd. Certainly this is not the way of the Torah. We will express support and trust in every victim and tell her 'you are not alone, we are with you here'"
The Ministry of Education stated: "Complaints are taken seriously and a thorough investigation will be conducted into the matter."
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