Talit katan If you have a pretty boy in Benei Brak don't rejoice, in Benei Brak it's a curse! One Saturday in January 2012, I went to a day screening of a film about a teenage transgender. Next to me sat two young guys. We started chatting. They told me they were gay and ex-orthodox Jews. After the film, they told me more about their now secular lives and their previous ultra-orthodox ones. Unusually, they had not been rejected by their families and both still stayed with them on weekends. The real shock came when the younger one said: "If you have a pretty boy in Benei Brak (a mainly orthodox jews' town), don't rejoice, in Benei Brak it's a curse not a blessing". Both admitted they had been abused by their rabbis and added this was not unusual, quite the contrary. They also told me they had tried to complain to the police but they were not interested. Unfortunately, our conversation ended abruptly because they had to rush home before the Sabbath was over...
I tried to raise some attention after this encounter but got nowhere. This work is the least I can do.
Societies, secular and religious, need to condemn abuse of any kind and put it on top of their intolerance list!