Haredi children were brought into the home of a convicted sex offender who posed an immediate danger to them, Meirav Ben Ari, from the Yesh Atid Party told the Knesset Education Committee on Monday. The kids were pupils in a government-funded school, despite its affiliation with Berland's religious sect.
Berland was convicted of multiple sexual assaults in 2021 in a plea deal after he was extradited to Israel from the Netherlands. He had been on the run for two years to avoid prosecution for his crimes.
Rabbi Menachem Yaveh, 51, was arrested this week on suspicion of leading a cult in Jerusalem and sexually abusing boys who were part of the cult. Yaveh is a student of Rabbi Eliezer Berland and father of 17 children. At least four of Yaveh's former students filed police complaints against him.
Ben Ari presented the panel with testimony including claims that Berland was involved in the school and oversaw its staff and curriculum of the 800-pupil-strong elementary school. She showed videos that she said included first-grade and sixth-grade students going to Berland's home with gifts. "Today, to be a counselor in an after-school program, you have to have a certificate from the police showing you do not have a criminal record or have been found guilty of sex crimes, so why can a convicted sex offender be involved with ultra-Orthodox children?"
Rabbi Yitzhak Wienhaus told the panel there was evidence of Berland anointing children with oil during a Hannuka celebration and a representative of an ultra-Orthodox woman's organization said even the rabbinical court ruled against the convicted sex offender.
"We must take the education of these children into our own hands, Sarah Batya Gado said. "The State of Israel funds this cult because you don't need to be a cult expert to understand that the education system is the one sustaining these cults. There are women who cannot speak," she said.
Haim Halperin, an official with the Education Ministry denied that there was any connection between the school and Berland. "The institution is not under his leadership, and he has no involvement in the organization, which properly manages its educational institutions, from elementary school onward."