Some strictly orthodox Jews are like refugees, says child abuse victim
A JEWISH child abuse victim has warned that some strictly orthodox communities are so isolated it feels like “being a refugee in your own country”, as she launched the UK’s first think tank to tackle extremism in Judaism.
Yehudis Fletcher, 32, was partly responsible for bringing Todros Grynhaus, a notorious paedophile, to justice.
As a Jewish teacher and son of a rabbi, Grynhaus was a respected figure within the strictly orthodox Jewish, or “Charedi” community within Salford, Greater Manchester.
However in 2015 he was jailed for 13 years for molesting two teenage girls – one of whom was Ms Fletcher.
Despite enduring sexual grooming, abuse and a lack of support from Manchester’s religious community, Ms Fletcher, a mother of three, has founded Nahamu, the first think tank of its kind in the UK to research and counter extremism within Judaism.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, before the official launch in north London, Ms Fletcher said: “Many people don’t understand the Charedi community at all.
“People who even have a concept of it, have either heard negative media coverage, seen some documentary and think it’s a cult community, or think ‘how quaint! people living their quiet lives’ and they fail to see us as individuals, so there’s real lack of understanding of what it’s like growing up within it. Generally the culture is very, very conservative and you’re very much living a kind of isolated life and because education is restricted and you’re only going to Charedi institutions.
“There’s little interaction with the outside world and you end up not seeing other people too. There’s a real sense of isolation almost as if you’re a refugee in your own country.”
She added that sexual abuse within the community was “symptomatic of the much wider problem where people take religion and use it to harm other people”.
Nahamu will focus on five main areas: the cover up of child sexual abuse, the systematic denial of education, forced marriage, coerced criminality and restricted autonomy.
‘There’s little interaction with the outside world and you end up not seeing other people’