This is obviously a very serious topic. I’d like to talk about a related topic. About 40 years ago I attended a regular lavish yeshiva ketana in boro park. I remember the 3rd grade rebbe beating me with a cane so badly that my entire leg was bruised and swollen for days. ( and by the way I was a good kid, and had done nothing more than perhaps whisper to a friend). Again in seventh grade we had a old European reebbe who walked around with a wood hanger and used it on anyone who didn’t “have the place”. I clearly remember the CRACK once as he hit a kid’s elbow bone.( the kid never returned to class) We had no recourse. Verbal abuse was a daily occurrence with many of the rebbaim . Amazingly, almost all of us turned out more or less ok. The odd thing is ,I don’t recall any bullying amongst kids. I suppose the horrors our rebbaim imposed on us gave us a common enemy. when Istarted high school I thought I was in gan eden . the rabbaim actually cared about us and every day was a pleasure. We learned to love learning.The memories and all the details of rebbe abuse are surely repressed somewhere in my subconscious.
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