With remarkable courage, one after another, men sit in front of the camera—some younger, some older, some have removed their yarmulka and sidelocks, while others still identify as ultra-Orthodox. What they all have in common is that as children, they endured unimaginable trauma—beaten, humiliated, and tortured while studying in Cheder (ultra-Orthodox boys' school). Their voices tremble as they recall being struck with rulers, witnessing classmates brutally beaten by grown men, and suffering psychological torment at the hands of school administrators—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  

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The man leading this project, No Child Spared, now airing on HOT8, is filmmaker Meni Philip, a well-known director and former ultra-Orthodox Jew, who personally experienced the same horrors.  

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"It has been many years since I studied in Cheder," he shares. "I never imagined that the violence was still happening in these institutions after all this time. Then, a few years ago, my brother wrote a post describing in horrific detail what he had endured. He studied at the same Cheder as I did, but after me, and I recognized the names of the rabbis he mentioned. The stories were horrifying. It created a chain reaction—people commented, shared their own experiences, posted their stories. This happened within a group we managed called ‘Choosing Anew.’ Suddenly, the post had hundreds of shares, spreading to other platforms and even reaching a large Facebook group of ultra-Orthodox members. A flood of testimonies followed, each one more shocking than the last.  

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"There were also very young people who had only recently finished Cheder, including another close relative of mine. I was in shock when I heard what he had been through—I thought his particular school didn’t engage in corporal punishment. But it turned out this was happening in many places. Today, I know there are Cheder schools that don’t use violence, but at the same time, there are many that still do. We invited anyone who wanted to share their story. Every person who wanted to speak—we said yes. And we began filming. After that, I sent everything to HOT8, and we set out on this journey."  

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Do you think this film will reach the ultra-Orthodox community? At least its leadership?  

"It’s hard to predict where things will go. I know that most of the ultra-Orthodox public doesn’t watch television, but they do find ways to see films about their community or made by former ultra-Orthodox filmmakers—it spreads by word of mouth. The range of reactions is broad. Some people have never watched a film and never will. There are members of my own family, for example, who will never see or even know about this film.  

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"Will this make a change? How much of a change? Will it reach closed communities? I don’t know. I hope so."  

Years ago, Philip was a successful Hasidic singer, known even outside the ultra-Orthodox world. In his deeply personal documentary *Let There Be Darkness, Let There Be Light*, he documented his journey out of the ultra-Orthodox community, along with four of his brothers, his divorce, and the rejection he faced from his former community—going so far as to attempt to prevent him from seeing his children.  

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"Today, I’m in touch with my family, but not with people from the Cheder. Leaving the community usually causes a total break. One of the biggest struggles is that people often lose everything—family, friends. It’s not an easy journey; the price is steep."  

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Though he had carried the scars of his time in Cheder for years, it was only through making this film that he fully realized how profoundly those experiences had shaped him.  

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"The filming process was incredibly difficult—a series of heartbreaking stories. Even though most of the people interviewed had long since left Cheder and were speaking about the past, their accounts didn’t surprise me—I knew this had been happening. But as I worked on the film, I began to see how deeply it had affected me. The things I went through shaped me in so many ways.  

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"Suddenly, it all made sense—the struggles I had in relationships, with friends, with family and children, with my siblings—it all stemmed from this. Suddenly, I realized how the violence I experienced shaped all my life choices. When so much fear is ingrained in you, you start navigating life according to that fear. Without even realizing it, you perceive others as a threat, you speak with them cautiously, and you don’t even know you’re afraid. Making this film opened my eyes to all of this—it changed how I see my own life."  

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Now available on HOT8, HOT VOD, and NEXT TV, the film has already made waves, exposing Philip to stories he had never imagined.  

​"I’m very surprised by the overwhelming exposure this film has received," he admits. "Every newspaper in the country is writing about it. That’s good—it’s a pleasant surprise. But what moves me most is that the film helps people realize they’re not alone. People who endured this abuse—abuse that destroys lives. I know that in the most personal and intimate way possible. You carry these wounds with you, and everyone around you suffers as a result.  

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"Today, I received a message from someone who told me that her partner is a former ultra-Orthodox man. She shared that he was beaten with a glue gun, had rulers shoved into his back—I was horrified. This film shows the suffering, the damage, the destruction of empathy and the ability to feel."  

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How does this level of violence align with a society that follows religious law?  

"That’s a good question. This debate exists within Jewish law itself—it has been an issue for years. I know that within the ultra-Orthodox community, there are people who oppose this kind of violence, and you can see that in some places, it’s stopping. I hope that change spreads further.  

"Every school that ends this violence isn’t just saving one child—it’s saving all the children in that school. Because there’s no such thing as a child who watches their classmates being beaten and isn’t affected. That trauma can sometimes be worse than the abuse itself. A child who sees this grows up to be a broken person.”

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* This article was translated from the original Hebrew version.