A teacher who was previously convicted of committing serious acts against six of his students worked until recently, for a year and a half, at the Talmud Torah 'Ateret Shlomo' in the Haredi community of Kiryat Yearim-Telzeston.
According to a report by Aharon Rabinowitz in Haaretz, The teacher was hired after introducing himself as Israel Spiegel - even though he had served more than five years in prison and upon his release, a series of restrictions were imposed on him.
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For about a year and a half, he taught Torah at Talmud without interruption, until his past was revealed in recent days by his parents - and he was suspended from his job.
According to Rabinowitz's report, since he began his work, many complaints have been received against him about emotional abuse of children, but the Talmud Torah administration did not take the complaints seriously.
During the struggle against the teacher, information came in that his real name was not Israel Spiegel at all. After investigation, it turned out that his real name was Malachi Israel Banias.
One of the parents decided to Google the name and, to his horror, discovered that it was none other than a pedophile who was convicted in 2014 of sexually assaulting several of his students, while he was a teacher at Talmud Torah schools in Rehovot and Beitar Illit.
In 2019, he finished serving a prison sentence of five years and ten months.
Upon completion of his sentence, he was under the supervision and surveillance of the Prison Service for four years, but immediately after this period he managed to get a job as a teacher at the Talmud Torah in Tilstone, while presenting himself under the false identity of a man named Israel Spiegel.
The Angels of Israel in Banias has not yet responded to Haaretz.
The management of Talmud HaTorah 'Ateret Shlomo' told Haaretz: "We were very surprised by the story. As soon as we learned of it, we activated all relevant factors to provide the necessary response to the students. At this stage, we prefer not to address questions about how his employment was made possible.".
The Ministry of Education told Haaretz: "The case brought before us is extremely serious. The inspection revealed that the employee did not appear at all on the list of authorized education employees that was forwarded to the ministry by the educational institution. The ministry demanded that the owner terminate his employment immediately, and this was done.".
""The ministry is examining the circumstances of the absorption and the gaps that allowed the employment, including the institution's claims that the employee presented an identity and documentation that were not genuine when he was hired. The ministry will use all means at its disposal to pursue justice.".
