"I Froze and Didn't Know What to Do": Heavy Testimonies on What Happens in Ultra-Orthodox Mikvahs

Shmuel (pseudonym) first encountered the mikvah only in his adolescence, after his father prevented him from immersing before the age of bar mitzvah — this is contrary to the common practice in his community, where even 10-year-old children immerse on the eves of Sabbaths and holidays. Within the walls of the yeshiva in Netanya, Shmuel, now 25, remembers well the sexual abuse he experienced.

Sexual abuse and harassment in mikvahs are an open, painful, and silenced wound in the Haredi sector, especially in Hasidic communities. While for most of the public the mikvah symbolizes a place of purity and spiritual preparation for prayer, for many boys and children it becomes a space of fear, trauma, and scars that will accompany them throughout their lives.

In the Hasidic sector, boys begin to visit mikvahs regularly as early as the age of bar mitzvah, and sometimes even earlier, when they lack knowledge, awareness, or guidance regarding personal safety.

The daily encounter of children and teenagers, who are in full nudity in one crowded space alongside adult men, creates fertile ground for harassment, sexual exploitation, and serious abuse. Many testimonies that reached the editorial board point to a systemic conspiracy of silence, in which the abuse becomes a known phenomenon — many are aware of it, but few speak about it.

Without awareness and without protection

In the yeshiva where Shmuel studied, separate hours were established for the immersion of boys and for the immersion of yeshiva students (avrechim). However, a spiritual director at the yeshiva, a man in his 50s, allegedly abused his position and insisted on arriving precisely during the hours intended for the young boys.

"He would always crowd in and make sure they felt him," says Shmuel. "He would enter and leave twice so that he would have the opportunity to rub against as much as possible. One Sunday, he took me to his room and asked: 'Tell me, do you masturbate? Do you think it's okay? Can you talk to me about it?'"

The lack of awareness of sexual safety among the teenagers left Shmuel confused in the face of the situation. "I understood that there was something wrong with it, but I didn't understand the severity of the matter. Really, out of innocence, in a great many cases I thought it happened by mistake," he explains.

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"In the mikvah, they didn't talk about safety — only about prohibitions"

David (pseudonym), now 20, who grew up in a closed Hasidic sect in Ashdod, describes how immersion in the mikvah became a threatening experience for him. "Boys begin to immerse regularly upon entering the yeshiva, around the age of 13-14, and sometimes also because they don't have proper showers in the yeshiva," he says.

David describes how he used to come to the mikvah also to shower, and there he found himself staying in the changing rooms and the immersion pool alongside adult men. "You don't really understand this whole thing about sex. You don't know at all this world of harassment or sexuality in general," he says, describing a routine of constant discomfort.

Proposed changes

Pinhas Weiss, a social worker and director of the "Mivtah" therapeutic center in Jerusalem, points to the root of the problem. He argues that the combination of a religious ritual, lack of awareness, and lack of supervision creates a sensitive reality.

To bring about significant change, Weiss points to two main steps:

1. Public responsibility in private mikvahs: installing security cameras in the entrance, exit, and changing room areas as a means of deterrence.

2. Parental discourse and safety education: the most important part is that every child receives from his parents the understanding of what is happening there and what is not supposed to happen.