UNITED KINGDOM
Independent
I was a pupil at illegal ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools in Hackney and was left alone and vulnerable in schools, while authorities failed to protect me. Because life inside these schools was all I knew, I didn’t even realise how wrong my experiences were until I left aged 18. Now I can see how my childhood was stolen from me – both by these illegal schools and by authorities who have no grasp on or interest in protecting children like me.
My school was a cabin. The roof was falling in with water and there were two toilets for 300 children. There was no concept of health and safety as our teachers told us, ‘God will protect you’ from anything bad happening. There was no playground, just a large concrete space. We spent break times playing with the wheels of old cars, or would kick around plastic bottles as makeshift footballs.
Other than occasional short breaks, we would spend entire days studying religious texts, normally starting at 6am and finishing at around 10pm or 11pm. Lessons were only in Yiddish and I left aged 18 unable to speak more than a few sentences of English. You sit in one seat all day, being taught pretty much the same thing every day. For young children, it’s very hard. But you have to do it, out of fear.
I was beaten physically by teachers and saw children beaten on a daily basis. We were hit with all sorts of objects. They had sticks which were colour coded for different types of bad behaviour and we would be hit with them; a red stick for one transgression, a yellow stick for another. I saw children really quite badly hurt. One got their knuckle broken. Others were marked with bruises. There is an internal first aid centre in Stamford Hill for Orthodox Jews. Children would be brought there to be tended to quietly so that it wouldn’t come out.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.