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| Rebbetzin Tzivia Rotenberg |
She is currently a high school principal at the Beit Yaakov Maalot girls' seminary in Jerusalem Despite the complaints, Rotenberg continues to conduct seminars and make connections with R.'s students. "It drains my soul. She must not have any more contact with girls "
Rotenberg responds:" These are allegations of ignorance, baseless and baseless "
At the age of 13 and a half, preoccupied with questions about life and religious belief, as is the custom of many teenagers, M. (full name withheld) came to the home of her teacher at the time, Zivia Rotenberg.
What happened to her there with someone she considered a revered educator - M.,who is now 39, will never forget.
"I showed up almost once a week, for a few months, at Zvia's house in the Ezrat Torah neighborhood of Jerusalem. The official purpose of the meetings, which lasted about an hour to two hours and was always initiated, was to strengthen my view, because I had questions about faith. at school.
"Most of the time I was completely alone with her at home. At first we would just study and talk, but then, I do not remember exactly after a few sessions, she started stroking me with her hands, neck, over clothes. Then she also started hugging, and then came kisses in the mouth, including The tongue.
"I was then a completely innocent girl, with no hint of understanding of sexuality, and she was a mature woman, already 40 years old, an authoritative and sought-after educator who all wanted to be close to her. Who were also subjected to mouth kisses from her. "
For decades, Zivia Rotenberg (66) was considered the revered teacher of the Beit Yaakov Beit Yisrael girls' school in Jerusalem, near the Mea Shearim neighborhood.
Rotenberg, a mother of four and married to Rabbi Eliezer Dov Rotenberg, grew up in Jerusalem as the daughter of a well-known and influential family in the ultra-Orthodox world.
Her father, the late Rabbi Avraham Dov Auerbach, was the rabbi of the Baka neighborhood and head of the Or Simach yeshiva.
For the past four years she has served as the high school principal at the prestigious Lithuanian seminary "Maalot Beit Yaakov", located in Ramat Shlomo - an ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood named after her revered aunt.
The seminar is headed by Rabbi Aryeh Rob.
Over the years, Rotenberg has stood out not only as a teacher, but also as an activist responsible for training in the Batya ultra-Orthodox girls' movement.
Roughly speaking, throughout her long career as an educator and principal, she was directly responsible for more than 2,000 students.
"Rotenberg made decisions not only on admission to seminars, but also on entering the training," explains Sara Horowitz, 39, an ultra-Orthodox who was a student at the Beit Yaakov Beit Israel school.
"According to reports that have come to me, she is also a Kallah teacher for their weddings. A Kallah teacher is the figure who teaches ultra-Orthodox young women everything related to married life and marriage. She is supposed to talk to her about the most intimate issues.
Investigation reveal for the first time that several complaints have accumulated against Rotenberg over the years.
Five complainants are presented here in the first person, after talking to "Israel Today".
From the accumulated evidence, a pattern emerges in which for years Rothenberg used to harass and sexually and mentally harm her students, most of them minors who were under her authority.
The complainants describe their coping over the years with the mental damage, pain and confusion she left in them, ostensibly, until they decided to break the bond of silence.
In a post she posted last month on several Facebook groups of ultra-Orthodox and women, Horowitz called on the Rotenberg victims to turn around and tell their story.
"I haven't slept at night for two weeks," she wrote, "I had an eighth-grade teacher who hurt my classmates, and I know that over the years she continued to hurt other girls. I need you to put an end to this. - contact me in private. "
The post published Sarah Horowitz.'s account:
"Stream of Inquiries",
According to Horowitz, although she did not name the abuser, she received anonymous inquiries from women who did not agree to identify themselves - and only asked to thank her for her activities and encourage her.
"You are doing a mitzvah," they told her.
Other women shared testimonies they had heard about Rothenberg, and when a psychiatrist told her about patients who claimed to be injured, Horowitz said she understood the extent of the allegations.
"I myself was not sexually harmed by Rotenberg," she clarifies.
"We had some conversations at school, during which she tried very hard to get close to me physically, but I kept my distance. She demanded that I come to her house, 'to pour out my heart and open the difficulties,' but I refused, because I already knew the rumors about her.
"Then she started a campaign of abuse against me, many times in front of the whole class. She made it clear that she would make sure that I was not accepted to any seminar, without giving any reason, just out of anger."
Following the cases of Yehuda Meshi Zahav, Haim Velder and Malka Leifer, which recently flooded cases of ongoing sexual assault within ultra-Orthodox society, Horowitz decided to act to prevent further harm.
"I have decided that there must be no more silence. I speak here on my behalf and do not hide, although it is clear to me that I will pay a social price for it. It is important for me to show that there are ultra-Orthodox women who have decided to act To stop the next injury. "
"I became completely dependent on her"
First evidence of Rotenberg's seemingly problematic conduct began to emerge as early as 27 years ago.
In 1995, one of her students at Beit Yaakov Beit Yisrael, then 14, told her older sister that her teacher at the school "hugged her and kissed her on the lips."
After some deliberation, her family decided to turn to the late Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who was the leader of the Lithuanian faction and died in 2012, at the age of 102.
The message conveyed from the rabbi's office to the family was that Rotenberg's care should be transferred to the school administration, and that she should be prohibited from "associating with girls,"
The fear of becoming entangled with a descendant of a family from the Torah-Lithuanian elite seems to have made it difficult to control the problematic teacher.
Testimonies from students indicate that at first Rotenberg stopped associating with students, perhaps following a conversation with the principal, but after about two years she returned to be alone with them, and even hosted them at her home.
About a decade ago, two victims contacted psychologist Eilat Cohen Wieder, who was then chairman of the board of the Kolach organization. Cohen Wieder sent an official letter on behalf of the organization to Rotenberg, a copy of which reached us. , She Denied the allegations and continued her work as usual.
R. (32), product manager at a public company, who was Rotenberg's student in the early 2000s, recalls:
"Zvia was very dominant in Beit Yaakov Beit Yisrael. Everyone was waiting for her to be their educator. It was a kind of tension, what kind of grade would she win? At the beginning of the year we found out that we had won the grand prize.
"I was 13 then, and in my character I was vibrant and leading, but never felt bad towards others. As a popular girl I was a leader of the class as well.
"Zvia caught me pretty quickly. She had a way of hunting the girls, and it worked the other way around: at first she abused me and insulted me in front of the whole class, and would take out everything on me. It was very unpleasant because I was not a chutzpadik girl .
"At one point she made me realize I needed to change and meet with her, I was frightened that she would expel me so I would wait for her outside like a good girl. When she came out into the hallway, I had the opportunity to apologize. She put me in the position of apologizing, saying ' I was wrong '.
"Today I know this is exactly where you can start exploiting someone, when the victim is in an apology position. She would say to me, 'Come with me,' and take me to the nature class room, downstairs, a dark room with stuffed animals. It was not pleasant to be there alone with her."
According to R., what started as reprimand conversations soon turned into sexual harassment by Rotenberg.
"She brought her face close to my face, put her hands on my legs, close to my crotch, and also stroked my neck. She clung even tighter, and her head was right between my shoulder and my neck. She started panting for long minutes.
"I was very uncomfortable, and I was shaking all over. She was so attached to me. I tried to protect my body with my hands, but then she pressed her chest to my defensive hands.
"That's how it went on in a lot of meetings, all in school. The situation was very strange to me. I realized something was wrong, but I could not name it. I was super innocent. All I wanted was for her not to get mad at me.
"Today I understand that she was really destroying me, until I became completely dependent on her. I also came to her house once, and also there she tried to approach me, but her daughter was at home, so she was careful. There was another time she was careful: we sat in one of the classrooms, near windows she came very close to me and told me she wanted to kiss me, but could not, because they would see us.
"She ran her finger over her mouth, then ran it over my lips. Meetings with her lasted hours, and once we were even locked out inside the school, because of the late hour. The excuse she gave was that she summoned me for a personal conversation and did not pay attention to time."
According to R., she told a close friend about what she was going through with Rotenberg.
The friend, which had itself been Rothenberg's student a year earlier, was not surprised.
It turned out that she, too, knew the teacher's behavior.
"The friend asked me, 'Well, has she already sat you on your lap and kissed you in the mouth?'
"That is, the way my friend indirectly described harassment that she herself may have experienced. Zvia did not kiss me on the lips, but there was a time that a film, was being shown during which we sat the whole class in the dark, and throughout the screening she stroked me over the clothes - and a little below."
Apart from the close friend, was there no one else who understood that you were in distress?
"My parents saw something happening to me. I started stuttering that year," says R. and begins to cry.
"That was my quiet shout. No stuttering treatment helped, and only after the connection with Zvia was severed, when I went to study at the seminary, did I return to normal speech."
In this context, it should be noted that some of the victims were debating whether to share with their parents what they went through, for fear of their reaction in very frum society.
One of the complainants explains that her parents were preoccupied with the burden of earning a living at home, so she chose to tell them only after a few years.
"My father immediately said in response that he perceived something was wrong with my relationship with Rotenberg, but did not know how to call it by name. My mother, for her part, said that even if I had told her then, she did not have the tools to deal with it."
Another woman claims her mother "laughed a laugh of embarrassment and distrust" when she told her.
Another woman says her mother's response to Rotenberg's kisses was "maybe it's a teacher's educational-psychological method of helping her students."
According to her, after years she talked to her mother again about the affair, and this time the mother cried and apologized for her previous reaction.
M.: "Only in retrospect did I understand the harm and the exploitation",
"Flashbacks from the gasps"
R. claims that the psychological damage from the problematic relationship with Rotenberg accompanies her to this day, and among other things also interferes with her marital relationship.
"Today I suffer a lot from physical intimacy, because of the flashbacks I have from those breaths on my neck. I can not when you get too close to me physically. I get tense up. To my husband I say: 'Do not breathe on me, do not approach'. It still hurts our relationship. .
"Because a woman touched me, and created intimate moments with me, it knocked something in my head. I know I need to take care of myself. I used to have a short psychological treatment, and now I're back to it. For me, what matters most to me is that this woman does not hurt other girls.
"She did acts that should not be done. A teacher should not behave like that. This woman made exploited teenage girls who did not know at all what sexuality is. It hurts me the most to hear that she is still teaching- and now she is a principal.
"It drains my soul. It's a hallucination. I'm not looking for revenge, and I do not need her money. Thank God I have a good job and a supportive family. I think she should leave the field of education, and at the moment. That she will have no more contact with girls "It does not make sense for this woman to continue working with young women and to be a manager with a lot of power in her hands."
Sara Horowitz, in cooperation with the Magen organization, which accompanies victims in the ultra-Orthodox community, coordinated the names of the complainants who approached her about the matter - they all tell a similar story.
Sarah recently applied to a private rabbinical court, which had set up a special panel of three rabbis from the ultra-Orthodox and religious Zionist communities, to investigate the complaints.
It should be noted that the tribunal has no legal authority to impose penalties, but only public-rabbinic authority.
Horowitz managed to bring two witnesses to a hearing in the court, which was held two and a half weeks ago at the home of one of the rabbis in Bnei Brak - one of them was R.
The second witness was P. (27), an ultra-Orthodox woman who she said was harmed by Rotenberg in 2008.
P. came to a discussion with her husband, and described to the rabbis a pattern similar to that described by others: how Rotenberg, 39 years her senior, formed an intimate relationship with her that included prolonged hugs, ostensibly taking advantage of power relations while she was an eighth-grade teacher. .
"The meetings with her were both at school and at her house, which she made sure to lock when we were alone," P. described in her testimony.
"Once her husband came home, and she jumped in panic. The hugs and caresses were very long, quite a few hours, and lasted all year long.
"When I got married, it hurt my relationship with my husband a lot. It confused me a lot. We were in a difficult situation because of this injury. I did not think that after I was forced into an intimate relationship with a woman I could develop a relationship with a man."
Another ultra-Orthodox woman, who also claims to have been harmed by Rotenberg in the early 2000s, asked to testify in court, but a rabbi she consulted ruled that she would not do so.
In a telephone conversation with "Shishvat," the woman (34) describes serious acts she allegedly committed on the part of Rotenberg.
"I went through more than sitting on my knees and kissing my mouth. Zvia explicitly opened her shirt and told me to touch her with the stripes of her bra. Explicitly. And also to put her hand on it. She also ran her hand under my shirt. Sure, sure. I remember where we sat. "It was at school, upstairs. Even then, there was talk of it."
M. also, from the beginning of the article, agreed to testify before the court, but said that she was unable, due to technical difficulties, to attend the scheduled hearing.
She now tells "Sitting" about the manipulative methods that Rotenberg allegedly used to achieve what she wanted among her students.
According to M., Rotenberg has always worked to bring her students to a position where they will "be proud" of her closeness - and will not oppose her actions.
"As a 14-year-old girl, it was a great honor to enter the exclusive circle of the girls closest to her. It has miraculously upgraded my social status.
"We seem to have been the purple units, the ones who 'won' personal conversations with her and caresses. As an innocent and curious child it was exciting and thrilling. Only when I grew up did I realize how repulsive it was. Today a scent that reminds me of her cream really makes me nauseous. I would come to her house regularly. She was wearing a robe and with the strong smell of the cream.
"By the way, I have a diary from that year, in which I marked when I went to her. I remember that she studied with me the book 'Ali Shor', by the late Rabbi Shlomo Wolba.
We talked about philosophical questions of knowing and choosing.
She is knowledgeable and smart, and that thrilled me as a girl looking for her way.
"In our meetings we would sit in the living room of her house, which is a closed room, and study at the table. Then she began touching me. At first her caresses on my hand.
"She was very manipulative. After that there were hugs, long hugs and kisses. I shared my experiance with my friends as it was occurring, it was no secret, it was something we talked about, but we saw in it something very exciting in our innocence.
"Her injury to me was not rape or invasive acts, but she was very intrusive to the soul of a 14-year-old girl, who was very reserved in an ultra-Orthodox society and came from a super-conservative family. I had no sexual consciousness, so it did not disgust me. Again, "At that time it was actually exciting and super sound. Only in retrospect did I understand the injury and the exploitation."
M., who does not currently belong to the ultra-Orthodox sector, also describes long and multiple telephone conversations with Rotenberg, which included prolonged silences and whispers from the teacher.
"I would go into my parents' room and talk to her on the phone. She would gasp and whisper to me 'I love you,' and then it was quiet again.
"As an innocent girl I believed her that she really loved me. Today I ask myself what exactly she did there, across the line. These were hallucinatory conversations. Her whispers also made me flashbacks after I got married."
Is your husband aware of what you went through?
"Even before the wedding I told him what I was going through. I did not hide it. Therefore, when he whispered to me 'I love you' - I asked him to find another way to say it, because it brought me back there, to that disgust."
Did the injury you suffered also create confusion in your sexual identity?
"Obviously yes. As a seminary student, I ran a lesbian couple system for all intents and purposes with my peers, and for a long time. I have no doubt it had to do with what Zvia did to me. Today I am married to a man and we hang out, but this confusion still bothers me sometimes.
"One of the more serious damages is the loss of my trust in human beings. Zvia took advantage of her place as a teacher. I believed her - and lost my innocence. It costs me dearly, because trust is the foundation of any relationship, not only in relationships but also in friendships and work." .
"Caused mental damage"
Further evidence of dubious conduct on the part of Rotenberg is provided by N., a 29-year-old ultra-Orthodox woman.
"I got scared and asked to go out. That was after I heard other girls' fears about her. I asked myself why suddenly a teacher locks a student in a class and starts stroking her? So I got up, and she let me go and go."
A few days after the post published by Horowitz, another woman, 33, arrived at the Maalot seminary, accompanied by her husband.
She demanded to speak with the head of the seminary, Rabbi Aryeh Rob, and told him that Rotenberg had sexually assaulted her and caused her mental damage - she claimed.
She asked Merov to take care of the information she provided, and asked him how a woman like Rotenberg could serve as a high school principal.
Rabbi Rob confirmed that such a request had been made, and claimed that the seminary staff had acted on the matter.
After seeing that her words had no effect, and Rothenberg continued in her role, the woman went into a deep depression .
Due to her mental condition she was unable to testify in court.
According to the testimonies of the women who testified in court, the day after the hearing - which was also attended by one of the elders of the rabbis in Bnei Brak - the old rabbi called the head of the Maalot seminary, Rabbi Rob, and asked him to dismiss Rotenberg immediately.
The court updated the women who testified that Rotenberg was allegedly fired.
However, Rotenberg was also observed later in the seminary, still in the position of high school principal, and was even scheduled to go on a "social Shabbat" trip with the students on behalf of the seminary.
Horowitz called the school administration in protest - and in the end Rotenberg did not go on a trip.
"We are talking about educators who are supposed to be a symbol and example of how a Jewish person should behave, how it is right to look and speak," says Abigail Heilbronn, 33, a social activist in the ultra-Orthodox sector, founder of "Do Not Shut Up," an organization that fights sexual assault in Israel. her.
"One of the most important things in cases of injury is that the victims get the correction they deserve. This matter, which is generally debated whether to suspend someone who has been sexually abused from an educational position, is simply delusional. If a sex offender can educate our children, if there is a thought What exactly world do we live in? A world that is too bad.
Abigail Heilbronn.
"It is important that the victims receive the apology they deserve," Photo: Yonatan Dubov
"In my opinion, it is also not enough that she will not be a principal and they will continue to silence the affair. What about a professional examination of the degree of danger of the offender? Did anyone make sure she would not be harmed anymore? Of Rotenberg for the psychiatric treatments that couples and women went through because of the trauma she caused them? And what about apologizing?
"It is unlikely that we, as a society that is very sensitive to the observance of Torah and mitzvos, will simply erase 'offenses between a man and his friend.
"I am very happy that an important discourse has recently developed within the ultra-Orthodox society around the silencing and rendering of sexual assault, as opposed to flooding and treatment. We are witnessing amazing changes in the debate. People are beginning to understand, They are almost always serial, and how - if no one stops them - they continue to hurt. "
Horowitz: "High school girls still do not really know how to call it by name. They are also very afraid of a possible harm to their future matchmaking or that of their younger sisters, so it is much harder for them to speak. It takes time to digest such an experience."
"Another way to cover the issue"
As part of the preparation of the investigation, we reached out to the friends of H. (22), a graduate of the Maalot seminary.
The companies described a close and "very" close relationship that H. had with the high school principal.
"It was a very strange connection. H. told us it was something that could not be explained."
In a telephone conversation with "Shishvat", H. herself described the close relationship she had with Rotenberg - a character she still talks about today with open admiration.
According to her, Rotenberg "saved my life and protected me. If there was contact between me and her, she was the one who stopped it."
The parents of another 17-year-old girl, who is still attending seminary, have felt a drastic change in their daughter's behavior in recent months, following her "close and prolonged" relationship with Rotenberg.
According to information we received, they turned to an expert in the field in ultra-Orthodox society.
"The parents could not say whether it was a sexual assault, but they suspected that their daughter had been abused by Principal Rotenberg," the expert describes in a conversation with "Shishvat."
"According to the parents, the principal caused their daughter's social isolation. It allegedly happened after the student refused to come to Rothenberg's house. The parents are now very worried, and I am still finding out the full details.
"In any case, it is not possible for a woman against whom there is evidence of harassment and abuse of girls to continue to be in close contact with girls who are under her authority. Her to retirement.
"For me, I see this as another way to cover up the whole affair. From the vast and dismal experience I have gained in the field, offenders do not just stop harming. If you do not stop them - they continue. So there is no choice: its name should be made public to prevent further harm. In other girls. "
Comments
Rotenberg: "Rejects allegations out of hand"
Throughout her years of work, she has educated and raised entire generations of girls from the ultra-Orthodox sector, with great dedication driven by faith, emphasizing values, morals, kindness, piety, honesty and modesty that grows the spearhead of the future generation.
"לגופם של החשדות, מדובר בטענות בעלמא חסרות בסיס ויסוד, נטולות פרטים, זמן, מקום ונסיבות על אירועים שהתבצעו לכאורה לפני כעשרות שנים. לפיכך, אין בידי מרשתי היכולת האמיתית להתייחס לכך, ובוודאי שלא לשתף פעולה עם 'משפט שדה' בתקשורת. עם זאת מרשתי תפעל באופן מלא עם הרשויות ככל ותידרש לכך.
"יוער ויודגש, כי מרשתי נעדרת עבר פלילי, מעולם לא הוגשה כנגדה תלונה בגין המיוחס לה ו/או זומנה לבית הדין חרדי לבירור טענות אלו כנגדה, והיא לא נדרשה לסיים את עבודתה".
תגובת הרב אריה רוב, ראש סמינר מעלות: "מהרגע שהדברים הובאו לידיעת בית הספר לפני כחודש, מתוך דאגה לתלמידות בית הספר, שעומדות בראש מעיינינו, בית הספר פועל ללא לאות עם גורמי מקצוע מהשורה הראשונה ומשרד החינוך ובהנחיית הרבנים. אנו יכולים לומר בוודאות כי מעולם, ואדגיש כי מעולם, לא נשמעה שום טענה על התנהלותה של המורה בנושא זה ולא קרוב לכך".
תגובת ארגון "קולך": "אנו מחויבים מאז ומתמיד לתמיכה בנפגעות ובנפגעים ולמאבק בפגיעות מיניות, תוך שמירה על פרטיות ובהתאם לחוק, פועל לעידוד דיווח מצד הנפגעות וטיפול מחמיר בפוגעים ובפוגעות. הארגון על 23 שנותיו היה שותף לחקיקות בנושאים אלו, בהסברה ובהגברת המודעות בחברה הדתית על החשיבות שבחשיפת הפוגעים והגנה ותמיכה לקורבנות, גם כאשר מדובר בפוגעים בעלי סמכות חינוכית ודתית. בשנים האחרונות ניכר ניפוץ קשר השתיקה סביב הפגיעות, ובולטת תמיכת החברה בהשמעת קול הנפגעות. מטעמי פרטיות לא נוכל להתייחס למקרה המופיע כאן".
תגובת עמותת "מגן": "כל סיפור פגיעה הוא חמור מאוד, אך כאן קשר השתיקה המצמית הופך את הפגיעה לכאורה לחמורה הרבה יותר. אנו מודים לנפגעות הגיבורות שבחרו לשבור את קשר השתיקה ולקחו על עצמן את השליחות לעצור את הפגיעה בעוד נערות. נמשיך לעמוד לצד הנפגעות, ואנו קוראים לנפגעות נוספות, אם ישנן, לא לפחד ולהוציא את האמת לאור".
The management of Beit Yaakov Beit Yisrael School refused to comment on the article.
shishabat@israelhayom.co.il
1 comment:
"from the Lithuanian-ultra-Orthodox elite, the niece of the late Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach"
Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach was, on his father's side, from big Chasidic yichus, a descendant of the תולדות יעקב יוסף, מחותן של הבעש"ט.
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