Chaïm Walder was a successful author, “Superstar” in the Haredi community, which had been put away after accusations of multiple sexual assaults, but kept many supports.
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In the Haredim – Those who fear God -, the heroes are normally rabbis: religious standards and very strict dynastic traditions leave little space to others. In this context, the author for children and therapist Chaïm Walder had managed to carve a unique space, shaken by prosecution for sexually assaulting at least 22 people over the last twenty-five years. He committed suicide on Monday, December 27, on the grave of his son, death of cancer at 28 years.
In the letter he left, the successful author made an appointment to his detractors at the Tribunal du Just Judgment. The day before, the testimonies of manipulation, aggression and rape repeatedly on women, girls and boys had followed at the rabbinical court of Safeped, in northern Israel.
At 53 years old, he had already published more than 80 pounds who, for two generations, had a place of choice on all the shelves of Ultraorthodox children around the world. The summer camps he animated favored the therapy by artistic expression. Director of a hosting structure of children at risk in the Ultraorthodox city of BNEI BRAK, in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, it had diversified in family therapy: it is in this context that it seems to have met the Most of its victims.
Envies of emancipation
He also had a significant presence in community media, including the influential Yated Ne’eman newspaper. “It was the Haredi equivalent of a superstar,” says Aaron Rabinowitz, a journalist specializing in the Ultraorthodox community on a daily Haaretz, and co-author with his colleague Shira Elk of the survey that revealed sexual abuse.
“Me too, I grew up with Walder’s books,” says Rabinowitz. It took more than two years of investigations to the two journalists to discover the author’s acts, two years who also led to prosecution against another ultra -orthodox important, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, founder of the volunteer rescue association. Zaka.
The two journalists are part of a new generation of ultraorthodox young people who do not hesitate to get out of their community to talk about their problems. The conservative desires of emancipation of the new generation and the breaches of leadership during the Pandemic of Covid-19, which has been very rough in ultraurthodox cities, grow slowly to change. Despite the efforts of rabbis, young people are increasingly connected to the Internet. On social networks, they find less regimated expression spaces, where we debate the latest revelations freely.
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