Plot

In the film "No Child Spared," director Meni Philip lifts the veil on an ongoing system of abuse that exists in ultra-orthodox Jewish educational institutions in Israel and other parts of the world.

Meni believed the days of teachers physically disciplining students belonged in the past, along with the vague memories of abuse he had suffered in school years ago. After Meni's brother shared a history of his own abuse at the hands (and fists) of his teachers in a post online, the story went viral. The post elicited a huge outpouring of responses from others who had suffered similarly and - shockingly - continue to suffer very recently. Meni was forced to confront the fact that this violence continues in schools all over the world even today.

Compelled to take a deeper examination of this disturbing trend, Meni Philip interviewed over a dozen adult and child survivors about their experiences in this brutal methodology of abuse. They shared story after story of outright cruelty chronicled as commonplace and capricious. Their testimonies described a framework which manipulated children to believe in the virtue of violence as a form of education, justifying the process by quoting bible verses, scholars, and rabbis. Meni recognizes that the effects of such a painful childhood continue to haunt survivors years - even decades - after it is over.

In listening to the often horrifying stories from these courageous survivors, Meni confronts his own part in this system. He comes to understand how this cycle of abuse and trauma works and how his own childhood actually had a profound impact on his life. His understanding that he too was complicit in this violence offers him a rare vantage point in capturing these raw and painful stories and the complexity of the overall mechanisms.

"No Child Spared" is an empathetic exploration of this previously undisclosed trauma experienced by countless children each day, and the immeasurable difficulty in breaking free of its effects.