Ex-members of Bratslav community testify about child marriages, abuse before Knesset panel

By Ariela Karmel

You will receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

You will no longer receive email alerts from this author. Manage alert preferences on your profile page

26 May 2026, 6:07 pm

Edit

Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

Committee Chairman Meirav Cohen leads a Knesset Committee on the Status of Women meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 26, 2026. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

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.

He says that after leaving the community and getting divorced, he reported the issue to the police, but was met with indifference.

Welfare and police representatives admit to difficulties enforcing the law, saying systematic efforts to tackle the problem only began in recent years.

According to a special report recently published by the Knesset Research and Information Center, the Population and Immigration Authority submitted 321 reports of child marriages to police between 2023 and 2025, resulting in just four indictments.