Ex-teacher jailed for molesting 13-year-old at Dutch Jewish school

Ephraim Schrijver, 30, who went to Israel as allegations surfaced and was extradited back to Holland, will serve 18 months

By JTA 23 May 2018, 9:07 am

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Illustrative: A prisoner behind bars. (sakhorn38/ iStock via Getty images)

AMSTERDAM — A Dutch court sentenced to 18 months in prison a former teacher who molested a teenager at an Orthodox school near Amsterdam.

Ephraim Schrijver, 30, left the Netherlands for Israel in 2012 amid allegations that he molested several pupils at the Cheider school in Buitenveldert near the Dutch capital. He was extradited in 2016 and sentenced Tuesday for molesting a 13-year-old boy, the ANP news agency reported.

The boy had social problems at school and sought comfort with Schrijver, the judges said. Schrijver has maintained his innocence throughout the trial.

The trial shocked the small Jewish community of the Netherlands, which is home to 40,000 Jews.

It came on the heels of revelations from an earlier scandal involving Abraham Rijxman, a former rector at Amsterdam’s Maimonides Jewish High School, who was forced to resign in 1971 due to allegations of molestation. The cause for his resignation became known in 2012. The Jewish community’s welfare institution set up a hot-line for reporting sexual abuse that year.