Sexual Abuse Rabbi from Tzfat Indicted

By Shlomo Pyotrkovsky
Arutz Sheva
July 27, 2015

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/198681

Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg

An indictment was submitted by the state prosecutor on Monday morning to the Nazereth District Court against Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg, who faces complaints of severe sexual abuse from no less than 13 women.

Sheinberg, who was arrested earlier this month while trying to flee Israel at Ben-Gurion Airport, is accused in the indictment of a long list of heinous crimes, including rape, sodomy, sexual assault, disrupting legal proceedings and obtaining objects through fraud.

The former Rosh Yeshiva (dean) of the Orot HaAri Yeshiva in the northern city of Tzfat (Safed) has denied the charges.

However, a week after his arrest, Arutz Sheva exposed several damning details about the case, including the fact that Sheinberg allegedly admitted his offenses to Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and other rabbis. He has since then claimed over and over again that the allegations are "nonsense."

Supported by the public outrage over the case, more and more women have come forward to publicly speak out about the alleged abuse they suffered, with one providing testimony to the Israeli media under an assumed name, and another publishing her side via an open letter. 

Solid material evidence has reportedly also been added to the case.

While in jail, guards complained that Sheinberg was cursing them, taking their names from the name tags on their shirts and writing them on a note before reciting: "I place on you a kfeida," a type of curse.