Ex-members of Bratslav community testify about child marriages, abuse before Knesset panel
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Women and men who grew up in an insular Hasidic sect in northern Israel allege widespread forced child marriages during a charged hearing of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women, as lawmakers press Welfare Ministry and police representatives over what they describe as years of inadequate enforcement.
Testimony is given by adults who grew up in the Bratslav community in Yavne’el, following reports last month about a government panel established in 2023 to look into the community and the failure of welfare and police authorities to address the issue.
One woman, Sarah Maimoni, tells lawmakers she was married at age 15 and became a mother at 16, describing her experience as “a reality of rape in every sense of the word.” She says she continues to live with the trauma and that welfare authorities have failed to protect children in the community.
A mother of eight and grandmother of five, Maimoni calls for a joint Welfare Ministry-police task force, arguing that authorities have allowed the phenomenon to continue unchecked. She says there are nearly 300 families in the community and that its leaders wield enormous influence.
Another victim, Nachman Bolotin, says children in the community were “brainwashed for years” into viewing child marriage as normal, adding that some 13-year-olds actively sought to marry.
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Content retrieved from: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ex-members-of-bratslav-community-testify-about-child-marriages-abuse-before-knesset-panel/ar-AA246cgH.
