Multiple women recount organized abuse including ritual ceremonies conducted by people they knew, even close family members – after months of interviews with victims, their families, treatment professionals and experts in Israel and abroad, a disturbing picture emerges with descriptions difficult to read.

“I suffered painful sodomy, truly felt like I was splitting in two. It’s a terrible experience, but there’s something about these things, perhaps in their strangeness, that’s like… maybe the hardest component is that if you tell people about these things, they’ll think you’re crazy. I remember many types of severe sexual abuse, but there’s something about these ritualistic abuses that makes them the bottom of darkness.”

In direct words and with a clear voice, Emunah (pseudonym, like all victims’ names in this article) describes the severe abuse she allegedly experienced in her childhood. Organized sexual abuse that included “ceremonies” with supposed religious significance. Horrifying ceremonies in which religious people, some from her own family, sacrificed her as an offering for spiritual transcendence or redemption.

Emunah is not alone. More than ten women between the ages of 20-45 with whom we spoke describe a severe phenomenon raising serious concern that in Israel, like many countries worldwide, organized sexual abuse of children is occurring right under everyone’s nose.

“Perhaps the world knows that rape occurs, that incest exists, but this the world doesn’t know,” Emunah said. “These acts have been kept secret for years, perhaps because of their insanity… it was always very, very strange. As if there was an internal logic, but it was so crazy… very strange things happen there, normalized in a ritualistic and orderly manner. There’s a specific time, there’s when to say this verse and when to say that verse, there’s an order as if things are supposed to be done this way…”

Each woman we interviewed during our investigation has a different life story. They come from different areas of the country, from north to south. Each is at a different place in her life. Some are students, others work and manage careers and family lives, and there are also young women barely surviving, clinging to life by their fingernails.

These women did not know each other previously, grew up in different communities, and come from different sectors and religious streams. Yet the ritual abuse stories they describe are similar in ways that compel us to listen and not turn a blind eye. Some were harmed in early childhood educational settings or in girls’ schools, others in their family homes, yeshivas or synagogues. In this article, we present only a very small sample from many hours of interviews and information, and some descriptions in this article are difficult to read. The great fear expressed by everyone who spoke with us is that organized sexual abuse of children continues even today.

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