"Takana" finds against Sylvie Dahari, founder of Megeirot

Makor Rishon reported Friday that Takana, a forum for for handling sexual harassment by authorities in the Orthodox community, publicized its conclusions about the behavior of Sylvie Dahari, known as the founder of the Megeirot method.

The forum's committee of six, including Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, Rabbi Avi Gisser, Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, Dr. Shlomit Lehman, Mrs. Tami Samet and Mrs. Malka Piotorkovski, met five times and listened to long hours of detailed testimony from men and women. The committee determined that Dahari controlled her students and took advantage of their weaknesses, fears, and admiration, by "creating absolute dependence among her students accompanied by verbal and emotional insults, fomenting discord between students, and ostracizing them. Sylvie sometimes said that her words came to her as a revelation from Heaven and a true godly epiphany."

The forum also determined that she interfered in the intimate family lives of students of the method, leading to possible psychological and physical damage to children and to the family structure. It also criticized her for "taking advantage of her authority over a student in order to build an inappropriate relationship with the student's husband; developing relationships having sexual overtones with several of her students through taking advantage of the dependent and authoritative relationship; and taking money and belongings for personal use."

Dahari was contacted several times to appear before the forum, but refused.

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