JERUSALEM (AP) – For decades, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav was one of Israel’s most recognizable faces, widely respected for establishing an ultra-Orthodox rescue service that cared for victims of Palestinian attacks and bridged the gap between religious and secular Israelis.
But in recent days, Meshi-Zahav has faced a growing list of accusers who say he has committed heinous acts of sexual abuse against men, women and children over the decades.
The scandal nearly destroyed the reputation of a man who just weeks ago received the Israel Prize, the country’s highest civilian honor, for his lifelong achievements. It has also shed light on the scourge of sexual abuse in the insular world of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community.
“When it comes to the ultra-Orthodox in particular, there is a very strong duty of silence,” said Manny Waks, an advocate for sexual abuse victims in Jewish communities and himself an abuse survivor in his native Australia.
“There is a closed community mentality, we vs. she. Putting all those things together is a recipe for disaster, especially in the context of child sexual abuse, ”he said.
While Meshi-Zahav has denied the allegations, his prosecutors have filed similar reports. They say Meshi-Zahav exploited his public fame to harass 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 Yedioth Ahronot on Sunday that he first met Meshi-Zahav in 1996 when he was 16 and Meshi-Zahav 20 years older than him.
“All the people who were around him during those years knew I was his escort. I turned into a prostitute in the fullest sense of the word, ”he said.
Meshi-Zahav was once a member of a radical ultra-Orthodox sect that opposed the existence of Israel, believing that a Jewish state could not be established until after the coming of the Messiah. His views changed after a devastating 1989 bus attack near Jerusalem killed 16 people.
Meshi-Zahav joined volunteers who helped collect the remains of the victims, in accordance with the Jewish custom of honoring the dead. He has said that the experience taught him that everyone’s pain was equal.
Those efforts led to the founding of ZAKA in 1995, whose volunteers helped identify the victims of disasters and suicide attacks and collected their remains for a Jewish funeral. Over time, the group expanded to include paramedics for first aid and gained widespread respect in Israel.
Meshi-Zahav has received numerous awards and became a symbol of moderation in the often strained relationships between Israel’s secular and ultra-Orthodox Jews.
He was invited to light a ceremonial torch during Israeli Independence Day celebrations and recently pleaded with fellow ultra-Orthodox community members to respect coronavirus security measures after both his parents died from COVID-19. At the time, he said that the rabbis who encouraged followers to ignore the safety rules had “blood on their hands.”
Early this month, Meshi-Zahav, 61, was awarded the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement. He burst into tears when Education Secretary Yoav Gallant made the news, saying the award belonged to ZAKA’s thousands of volunteers.
That recognition seems to have been the trigger that led his prosecutors to emerge after years of silence.
It began last Thursday, when the Haaretz newspaper published reports of six alleged victims who accused Meshi-Zahav of rape, sexual assault and harassment.
In response, Meshi-Zahav wrote a letter saying, “These dragonflies are baseless and are more like gossip and closing accounts against me.” He said he was taking a break as director of ZAKA and renounced the Israel Prize, but he denied any wrongdoing.
Since then, the trickle of testimonials has turned into a deluge.
On Sunday, Israeli police announced that its major crime unit, Lahav 433, had opened a formal investigation. On Monday, Hebrew media reported that police had investigated similar charges against him in 2013, but closed the investigation due to lack of evidence.
ZAKA, meanwhile, released a statement expressing “shock and astonishment,” saying that the charges against Meshi-Zahav “aroused profound horror, shock and disgust light years from the values that characterize the organization.”
Statistics on sexual abuse in the ultra-Orthodox world are hard to come by.
Waks, who heads the advocacy group VoiCSA, said the common estimate in Israeli society is that one in six boys and one in four girls has experienced sexual abuse. He said there is nothing to indicate that the numbers differ in the ultra-Orthodox world.
“Many of us would argue that there are increased vulnerabilities, which would translate into a greater number of exploits,” he said. These include the lack of sex education, the inability to keep a close eye on children due to large families, and the general level of trust among adults in the tight-knit communities.
He called the allegations 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 set at 20 years from the time the victim turns 18. For other cases, the statute of limitations for sexual assault is three to five years, and 10 years for rape.
In a groundbreaking case that shed light on abuses in the ultra-Orthodox world, Israel delivered Malka Leifer, an ultra-Orthodox former teacher wanted on 74 counts of child sexual abuse, to Australia in January after a lengthy legal battle.
Shana Aaronson, executive director of Magen for Jewish Communities, an Israeli sexual abuse survivor advocacy group, said at least six people have approached the organization about Meshi-Zahav. She said the first allegations of allegations surfaced about six years ago.
“The person didn’t want to talk about it anymore, go to the police or anything like that,” she said.
She said the spectrum of complaints that have surfaced against Meshi-Zahav “paints a picture of a particular personality of someone who was incredibly confident that he would just get away with this.”
The Israeli Ministry of Education, which awards the Israel Prize, has not yet commented on Meshi-Zahav. But Miriam Peretz, member of the awards committee and winner of the Israel Prize, has spoken out.
“All of us, members of the committee, categorically condemn this whole terrible thing,” she told Israeli public broadcaster Kan.