A voice for Jewish victims of sexual abuse in South Africa

The Chaim Walder scandal has shone a fresh spotlight on support group Koleinu. Gillian Klawansky talks to its founders about their struggle to bring the problem into the open

“AS A COMMUNITY we need to treat this latest horrifying case as another call to action. It is a dramatic reminder of the destructive effects of sexual abuse. It is also a shocking reminder that silence is deadly.”

So said South Africa’s chief rabbi Warren Goldstein, addressing the case of Israeli Haredi author Chaim Walder in a message sent to the community last month. Goldstein also advocated the work of sexual abuse support group Koleinu, the Chevrah Kadisha and other organisations working to protect the community against abuse, including his own initiative, the Abuse Review Board, formed in 2017 to ensure that no cases slip through the cracks.

Having long been a proponent of speaking out against sexual abuse, Goldstein also hosted a webinar titled Sexual abuse: let’s talk openly, which included a panel of international and local abuse experts who discussed the halachic and legal obligation to report abuse.

Weeks later, in a public social media post, a prominent Johannesburg Hebrew teacher was accused of having sexually abused teenagers for a number of years. In keeping with the Sexual Offences Act, he cannot be legally named until charges have been formally laid and he has pleaded to them.

When approached by the SA Jewish Report Newspaper, the teacher vehemently denied the accusations and said he had not been contacted by the police.

This story, which has made headlines, also sparked a ground-breaking statement from the Beth Din urging victims of child abuse to report their cases and stressing that this was in keeping with Jewish law.