Loss of innocence: Hostel abuse survivors speak out

Two men who say they faced almost daily sexual abuse while at the King David High School hostel in the 1980s have come forward to share their stories. Both buried their secret for decades. Now, they say they are in a more secure place and no longer want this unhealed wound to fester. 

They hope that by sharing their stories they will encourage others to come forward, which will lead to healing for victims and the community. 

Their alleged abusers were two former staff members at the school in the 1980s, neither of whom are Jewish. The names of the alleged perpetrators are known to the SA Jewish Report, but cannot be published because the men haven’t yet been officially charged. They have long since left the employ of King David Schools. 

One survivor, Trevor Appleson (58), was recently flown to South Africa by the South African Board of Jewish Education (SABJE) to formally lay criminal charges against both men at a police station. 

“I was the victim of two paedophiles,” says Appleson, who now lives in England. “I was groomed by them. The one, a teacher in the hostel, roamed freely, molesting boys in their beds. We were totally at his mercy.” 

Survivors have engaged a Johannesburg lawyer and are vigorously pursuing a criminal case. “We want to see the perpetrators arrested,” says Appleson. 

Speaking to the SA Jewish Report from Canada, Howard Levy (58) says he arrived at the King David hostel traumatised by the death of his father, and the same sexual predator preyed on that vulnerability. 

“As a kid, I loved fishing,” says Levy, who grew up in Potchefstroom. He eventually convinced his father to take up fishing too. Their shared love of the hobby grew, until Levy’s father drowned in a fishing accident when Levy was 12. “Because I convinced my dad to try fishing, I felt like I had killed my father,” he says. 

It was in this state that Levy arrived at King David Linksfield’s Sachs House Hostel in 1982. There, the perpetrator took advantage of his need for a father figure and his guilt, abusing him almost nightly. 

The abuse continued even after Levy’s mother came to Johannesburg and Levy moved back home. Knowing the family was struggling financially and emotionally, the predator would bring them food, then abuse Levy in his bedroom. This continued until the boy matriculated. 

“In some ways, I saw his abuse as ‘punishment’ because in my mind I had ‘killed my father’,” says Levy. This week, he signed an affidavit in Canada, and is willing to come to South Africa to submit a formal complaint to the police, if needed. 

Appleson says he also experienced “horrific abuse” by a male geography teacher, who took him into the back room of his classroom to sexually assault him. 

Both survivors were 13 at the time, but Appleson says he knows of victims who were abused at an even younger age. Three other people have reported abuse to the school. Those who have come forward say there are many others, because the hostel teacher molested multiple boys in multiple dormitories. 

What was particularly insidious was that “as a boarder, these adults were our parent figures”, says Appleson. “Sexual abuse is a murder of the self. You live with an open wound.” 

Both men say that instead of healing with time, this wound grew and festered, leading them to finally speak up. They emphasise that sexual abuse victims often take years to “come out” because they don’t have the strength to face the abuse. Levy says he might have taken his own life had he had not “buried” what happened to him. 

Both men say that seeing their children reach the same age they were when they were abused has also pushed forward the pain. They are clear they don’t want the trauma to continue to affect their lives or the next generation. They emphasise that just because time has passed, it doesn’t mean what happened is any less horrific, and it still needs to be faced. 

The SABJE, which has supported the two men in laying criminal complaints, released a statement acknowledging the allegations on 18 May. 

“This isn’t something that can ever be minimised,” wrote Rabbi Ricky Seeff, General Director of the SABJE. “If these alleged perpetrators are guilty, they must be prosecuted. Abuse cannot and will not be tolerated.” 

The SABJE has ensured that the alleged perpetrators aren’t currently part of the education sector in any way. 

Both Appleson and Levy are children of single mothers, and both say the abuse deeply affected that relationship. Both were unable to tell their parent what had happened to them, but at the same time felt angry with their mothers for unwittingly putting them in harm’s way. 

This devastation is captured in a letter Levy’s mother, Marjorie Levy, wrote to the SABJE last week. Now in her 80s, she didn’t know what had happened to her son until he finally told her recently. The ripple effect of the abuse impacts their family to this day, she says. 

“I am struggling to find words to describe the anger, devastation, betrayal, and grief I now live with, after learning what was done to my son,” she wrote. “What makes this unbearable is not only the abuse, but the knowledge that I did everything to ensure the school understood how vulnerable Howard was after the death of his father.” 

When her son had become withdrawn and isolated, she had put it down to his dad’s passing. “I now live with the devastating knowledge that while I was trying to help my son heal, another adult was abusing him,” she wrote. “That betrayal is something I don’t know how to forgive.” 

Seeff says that “Marjorie’s email was very hard to read. For a mother to find [this] out for the first time in 40 years must be indescribably traumatic.” 

Levy’s mother is calling for “a genuinely independent investigation into historical safeguarding failures; full transparency regarding prior complaints; accountability for those who failed to act, if any; and meaningful support for survivors and their families”. Survivors are calling for the same. 

“Her concerns are entirely understandable and we take them seriously,” says Seeff. The SABJE is “committed to ensuring that this is handled thoroughly, sensitively, and responsibly”. 

The SABJE is engaging with abuse experts and intends on investigating fully. “We are committed to being as transparent as possible, consistent with our moral, ethical, legal, and safeguarding obligations,” says Seeff. 

He says survivors’ stories are “tragic” and he has responded to everyone who has approached the SABJE. The organisation is open to setting up processes to offer psycho-social support to victims. 

Appleson emphasises that this “isn’t about hurting the community”. Rather, it’s about ensuring there is a process in which what happened is acknowledged. Both men say the abuse led them to distance themselves from Jewish life, but emphasise that “victims are part of the community”. 

They say that most hostel boarders knew about the abuse, either because they were also being molested, or because they saw it happen in their dormitories. They believe some adults may have known, especially about the hostel teacher. 

“While the current leadership played no part then, they now have the opportunity to do what they can to remedy it,” says Appleson. 

The SABJE has engaged lawyers and the Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa to ensure the accusations are properly investigated. The SABJE now has extensive safeguarding measures for employment, including police clearance checks and sexual offender vetting. 

Seeff extends “a sincere apology” to victims, and asks anyone who experienced or witnessed abuse to come forward confidentially so appropriate action can be taken. 

Even though the abuse took place 40 years ago, for Appleson, “the wound itself is continual abuse, and it’s cathartic to seek justice. I’m doing this to save myself and my family, and hopefully we will help other survivors and their families too.” 

For many years, Levy remained silent “due to fear, shame, trauma, and concern about my vulnerable family situation”. But now, “I’m proud to testify in my name”, he says. “It’s time to tell our stories. I’m done with hiding away.”