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Leading Israeli Rabbi Indicted on Rape Charges

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Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg of Safed was indicted last week on 12 counts of rape, sodomy and other sexual offenses.

Rabbi allegedly sexually attacked women who came to him for advice

A prominent rabbi from the northern Israeli town of Safed was indicted Monday on 12 counts of rape, sodomy and other sexual offenses. Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg is also charged with interfering with the criminal investigation against him.

Sheinberg, 48, a father of eight, is alleged to have committed the offenses against 12 women who came to him seeking medical and spiritual advice on fertility and other issues, over a period of 10 years, while serving as head of a yeshiva.

According to the indictment, his victims were young, religious women – most of whom were married to his students – who saw the rabbi as an authoritative figure and believed that his “relaxation” treatment would help them.

“The rabbi would fraudulently obtain their consent for him to touch them intimately and perform various sexual acts,” according to the indictment. “At a more advanced stage, Sheinberg would propose to some of his victims to have sexual relations with him, and had full sexual intercourse with one of his victims.”

He also demanded they take pictures and videos of themselves and send them to him, and that they hold video calls with him, during which they were instructed to undress and perform sexual acts, the indictment said.

Sheinberg would also tell his victims that these actions were permitted according to Jewish law and that he had received the approval of rabbis for such actions, The Jerusalem Post reported.

He forbade his alleged victims from telling anyone about what he did and demanded they erase their correspondence with him.

The rabbi was arrested on July 2 at Ben-Gurion Airport in an alleged attempt to flee the country and has been held ever since.        (i24 News)

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