JERUSALEM (AP) – For decades, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav was one of Israel’s best-known faces, widely respected for founding an ultra-Orthodox rescue service that served victims of Palestinian attacks and eliminated the divide between religious and secular Israelis.
But in recent days, Meshi-Zahav has faced a growing list of accusers who say he has committed horrendous acts of sexual abuse of men, women and children over several decades.
The scandal almost destroyed the reputation of a man who, weeks ago, received the Israel Prize, the country’s greatest civil honor, for his life achievements. It also illuminated the scourge of sexual abuse in the island world of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community.
“When it comes to ultra-Orthodox in particular, there is a very strong code of silence,” said Manny Waks, an advocate for victims of sexual abuse in Jewish communities and himself an abuse survivor in his native Australia.
“There is a closed community mentality, we are against them. Putting all these things together is a recipe for disaster, in the context of child sexual abuse in particular, ”he said.
While Meshi-Zahav denied the allegations, his accusers delivered similar reports. They say that Meshi-Zahav exploited his public prominence to molest and sexually exploit women, boys and girls, and that the ultra-Orthodox community protected him with a wall of silence.
A victim identified by the letter “N” told the Yedioth Ahronot newspaper on Sunday that he met Meshi-Zahav in 1996 when he was 16 and Meshi-Zahav was 20 years older.
“All the people close to him during those years knew that I was his companion. I became a prostitute in the full sense of the word, ”he said.
Meshi-Zahav was once a member of a radical ultra-orthodox sect that was opposed to the existence of Israel, believing that a Jewish state could only be established after the arrival of the Messiah. His opinion changed after a devastating 1989 bus attack near Jerusalem killed 16 people.
Meshi-Zahav joined volunteers who helped to collect the remains of the victims, following the Jewish custom of honoring the dead. He said that experience has taught him that everyone’s pain is the same.
These efforts led to the formation in 1995 of ZAKA, whose volunteers helped to identify victims of disasters and suicide attacks and collected their remains for a Jewish burial. Over time, the group expanded to include first-response paramedics and gained widespread respect in Israel.
Meshi-Zahav received numerous honors and became a symbol of moderation in the often tense relations between Israel’s secular and ultra-Orthodox Jews.
He was asked to light a ceremonial torch at Israel’s Independence Day celebrations and recently pleaded with other members of the ultra-Orthodox community to respect the safety precautions of the coronavirus after his parents died of COVID-19. At the time, he said that the rabbis who encouraged followers to ignore security rules had “blood on their hands”.
Earlier this month, Meshi-Zahav, 61, received the Israel Award for his work as a whole. He burst into tears when Education Minister Yoav Gallant broke the news, saying the prize belonged to ZAKA’s thousands of volunteers.
This recognition seems to have been the trigger that led his accusers to come forward after years of silence.
It all started last Thursday, when the Haaretz newspaper published reports of six alleged victims accusing Meshi-Zahav of rape, sexual harassment and harassment.
In response, Meshi-Zahav wrote a letter saying “these calumnies are unfounded and look more like gossip and closing accounts against me”. He said he was taking a break as director of ZAKA and resigned from the Israel Prize, but denied any wrongdoing.
Since then, the flow of testimonies has turned into a torrent.
On Sunday, Israeli police announced that their serious crime unit, Lahav 433, had opened a formal investigation. On Monday, the Hebrew media reported that the police had investigated similar allegations against him in 2013, but had closed the investigation for lack of evidence.
ZAKA, however, issued a statement expressing “shock and awe”, saying that the allegations against Meshi-Zahav “arouse deep disgust, shock and disgust, light years away from the values that characterize the organization.”
It is difficult to obtain statistics on sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox world.
Waks, who leads the advocacy group VoiCSA, said the general estimate in Israeli society is that one in six boys and one in four girls have been sexually abused. He said there is nothing to suggest that the numbers are different in the ultra-Orthodox world.
“Many of us would argue that there are growing vulnerabilities that would translate into an increasing number of abuses,” he said. This includes the lack of sex education, the inability to control children because of large families, and the general level of trust between adults in the united communities.
He called the charges against Meshi-Zahav “shocking, but not surprising,” and said he hoped they would encourage other alleged victims to come forward. He also urged Israel to abolish the statute of limitations in such cases.
The current statute of limitations for sexual abuse in the family or with a close member of the community, such as a teacher or doctor, is established at 20 years from the moment the victim turns 18. For other cases, the statute of limitations for sexual abuse is three to five years, and 10 years in cases of rape.
In a historic case that illuminated abuses in the ultra-Orthodox world, Israel in January extradited Malka Leifer, a former ultra-Orthodox teacher wanted on 74 counts of child sexual abuse, to Australia after a long legal battle.
Shana Aaronson, executive director of Magen for Jewish Communities, an Israeli group for the defense of sexual abuse survivors, said at least six people had approached the organization about Meshi-Zahav. She said the first indications of accusations came about six years ago.
“The person no longer wanted to discuss the matter, go to the police or anything like that,” she said.
She said that the spectrum of complaints that arose against Meshi-Zahav “shows a certain personality of someone who was incredibly confident that he would get away with it.”
Israel’s Ministry of Education, which awards the Israel Prize, has yet to comment on Meshi-Zahav. But Miriam Peretz, a member of the award committee and winner of the Israel Prize, spoke out.
“All of us, members of the committee, categorically condemn this horrible thing,” she told Israeli public broadcaster Kan.