Back in 2015 the jewish world – and especially the world of Israeli ultra-Orthodoxy – was rocked after one of its Kabbalistic mystic superstars – Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg – was revealed as having been repeatedly raping his various female ‘therapy’ clients with the knowledge of his wife then promptly tried to flee Israel to escape justice. (1)
Perhaps predictably given that Sheinberg had upset just about every segment of jewish and Israeli opinion and society; nobody intervened for him in his resulting trial with the ‘Times of Israel’ reporting on 26th July 2017 how:
‘A well-known rabbi and yeshiva head from Safed was convicted on Wednesday of committing sexual crimes against eight women.
Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg confessed and was convicted in Nazareth District Court as part of a plea deal over a series of crimes committed against women who came to him for advice and counseling.
The prosecution demanded that the former head of the Orot HaAri yeshiva receive a nine-year jail sentence after his conviction for crimes, including rape and indecent assault.
A total of 14 women made allegations against Sheinberg to a special investigation team and police suspect that many other victims were afraid to come forward. The victims were all religious women who had come to the rabbi for advice or help on various issues including health.
Sheinberg had been a popular Kabbalist and respected figure in Israel’s national-religious community and author of several books of Torah ideas.
Sheinberg was arrested on July 1, 2015, as he attempted to flee the country as allegations against him emerged. He has been in prison since that time.
According to prosecutors at the time, Sheinberg used his position of prominence and reputation as a powerful mystic to lure in and take advantage of women who came to him for religious counsel and blessings for fertility when they struggled to conceive.
They alleged that the victims shared a number of characteristics: they were young religious women whose husbands, in most cases, were Sheinberg’s students at the seminary.
Part of his modus operandi involved convincing the victims that only he could provide a solution to their problems, through a treatment he dubbed “relaxation.”
During those sessions, Sheinberg fraudulently obtained his victims’ consent to commit sexual acts, prosecutors said, adding that the defendant used innocent young women who trusted him as a tool to satisfy his sexual desires.
Some of the women had originally approached a rabbinic council with the allegations. A team of local rabbis, led by Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, began investigating the accusations in mid-June 2015, and later reported them to the police.
Sheinberg’s wife told Eliyahu that she knew her husband had sex with the women, but that the sex was part of their therapy.
Sheinberg has eight children and several grandchildren.’ (2)
Sheinberg was subsequently released on 1st January 2023 – after serving 7.5 years in prison – and immediately moved into a new home in an Israeli settlement called Katzrin in the Golan Heights – in Israeli-occupied Syria – north of the sea of Galilee that he had bought two years previously in 2021. (3) When he’d originally be slated for early release from prison ‘due to good behaviour’ but as this drew significant public protests from the families of his victims (4) as well as prominent figures inside the Israeli religious establishment (5) this was delayed to 2023.
Then the jewish residents of Katzrin – to my surprise – showed some principles and forced Sheinberg to leave their town – apparently even Israeli settlers as crazy as they can be don’t want a serial rabbinic rapist diddling their wives and daughters – (6) and as of then we don’t have any more information about has happened to Sheinberg.
However, the concern is that he has migrated to the United States or somewhere else other than Israel and is trying to get up to his old tricks again.
References
(1) https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/society/80037-150728-leading-israeli-rabbi-indicted-for-rape; https://www.jta.org/2015/08/13/israel/wife-of-accused-safed-rabbi-said-she-knew-about-sex-acts
(2) https://www.timesofisrael.com/safed-rabbi-convicted-of-rape-for-sex-therapy/
(3) https://www.timesofisrael.com/safed-rabbi-jailed-for-slew-of-sex-offenses-released-from-prison-amid-protests/
(4) Idem.
(5) https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/299150
(6) https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/the-appropriate-treatment-for-ezra-sheinberg/
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