Illegal Jewish Faith School Update: Student Opens Up About Abuse and Punishments

A former student of an illegal Jewish faith school operating in London has revealed his traumatic experience, the abuse and punishments suffered.

According to The Times of Israel, informal Haredi Orthodox Jewish schools called heders operate illegal in London borough of Hackney. Some of the Jewish faith school are teaching only scripture instead of the national curriculum and operating without a permit.

A London firm working with a local education authority has recognized that it had destroyed evidence about illegal faith schools education Jewish children. The Hackney Learning Trust is a private firm working for the municipal council of Hackney. According to the report, employees of the firm informed a municipal official in 2010 that pupils are educated in heders at the request of Jewish educational institutions and that the firm had destroyed evidence of their attendance.

According to the British publication Independent, a former pupil of such an ultra-Orthodox Jewish school in Hackney has open up about the experience. Children were molested often but the police of authorities were never called.

The former student of the illegal Jewish faith school complained that he was left alone and vulnerable, while authorities failed to protect him. Until he left at the age 18, he couldn't even realize how wrong his experienced were. Life inside these ultra-Orthodox Jewish schools was all he knew.

The former pupil who wants to keep his name confidential added that he can now realize how his childhood was stolen from him, both by authorities who did not protect children as him and by these illegal schools.

According to his story, the school was a just cabin with only two toilets for 300 children and a roof that was falling in with water. Besides teachers saying that God will protect them, there was no concept of safety and health.

The break times were spent playing with wheels of old cars the playground was just a large concrete space. The students would spend entire days studying religious texts, except occasional short breaks. The scripture studying schedule was starting at 6am and finishing at around 10pm or 11pm.

But what was worse in his recalled experience was the fact that students were beaten physically by teachers. The former pupil of the illegal Jewish faith school remembers that he saw children beaten on a daily basis, hit with all sorts of objects.