More people have allegedly come forward with allegations of sexual assault and abuse by the co-founder and chairman of the ZAKA Voluntary State of Emergency, amid allegations that the alleged attacks were widely known in some parts of the ultra-Orthodox community.
Police were called in on Sunday to investigate several allegations against Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, but according to media reports, a case will have to be viable within the statute of limitations period.
The investigation begins as more light is shed on allegations that Meshi-Zahav’s behavior was known in the ultra-Orthodox community for years, but a code of silence has been maintained.
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Meshi-Zahav is a prominent figure in the ultra-Orthodox community, with ZAKA a large part of Israel’s emergency response services abroad. Earlier this month, he was announced as the winner of the coveted Israel Prize, but he said on Friday that he would give up the prize.
Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, co-founder of ZAKA, speaks at a conference in Jerusalem on March 7, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
He was initially charged Thursday with six counts of sexual assault, rape and assault in a Haaretz report. The allegations against Meshi-Zahav were made by men and women, some of whom were minors during the alleged events.
Shana Aaronson, director general of Magen, told Army Radio on Sunday that her organization, a non-profit organization working to support survivors of sexual abuse, first heard rumors about Meshi-Zahav a few years ago , but ‘there was no one who was willing to talk about what happened. Only a few months ago, we started getting specific testimonials. ‘
Tzviki Fleishman, a senior investigator from Magen, told public broadcaster Kan that the organization had received more than six new claims.
“We have to make it clear,” Fleishman said. “The rumors about him were also known to us years ago, but there was nothing concrete to work with.”
A woman identified only as Tal told the Ynet news website that Meshi-Zahav had her parents divorced after he sexually exploited her mother. Tal said Meshi-Zahav later also made progress with her.
Police officers patrol the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem on July 5, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
Tal said her family lived in the ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood and that her mother, who was 20 during her second pregnancy, became depressed and Meshi-Zahav was taking advantage of her mental state, Tal said.
‘Behind my father’s back [Meshi-Zahav] turned her into his sex slave, ”she said, adding that Meshi-Zahav had been using her mother for several months.
‘One day my father unexpectedly came home and caught them together, and from there it led to a divorce. Yehuda broke our family apart, ”said Tal, who eventually left the ultra-Orthodox community at the age of 12.
A few years later, she came across Meshi-Zahav in a store on Jaffa Street in Jerusalem, near the ZAKA headquarters.
According to Tal, when Meshi-Zahav recognized her, he said, “Perhaps you will come to my office and get to know you more closely, as I knew your mother?”
After initially leaving the store in shame, she returned to yell at Meshi-Zahav, she said.
At the time, there was a friend of hers who worked in the store who also left the religious community. Tal said that after the collision with Meshi-Zahav, the friend approached her in tears one day and said that he had just come from Meshi-Zahav’s office and that the ZAKA chief had touched him inappropriately and forced him to do things. to do in exchange for NIS. 100 (about $ 30).
Another friend of hers told her that Meshi-Zahav would suggest her a large sum of money if he could see her committing an act of bestiality, Tal said.
“The man is a pervert,” Tal said, recalling that after hearing that Meshi-Zahav should receive the Israel Prize, she “started shaking.”
“It brought things back to me,” she said. “I’m crying, but I’m glad it’s all coming out eventually.”
Tal estimates that Meshi-Zahav’s abuse affected thousands of people.
ZAKA Chief Rabbi Yehuda Meshi-Zahav on February 4, 2010. (Yaakov Naumi / Flash90)
“He did not stop at all,” she said. “He chose everything. He’s a crazy man. ‘
Tal said that after she posted on Facebook about her experiences, she was contacted by dozens of other people and claimed to have suffered abuse, including ZAKA workers.
She said that although she told everyone to file complaints, they told her that they were not capable of doing so.
“They don’t want to deal with it right now,” she said.
So far, no one has filed a complaint with the police since the initial Haaretz report last week, Ynet reported.
Illustrative: A ZAKA minibus and volunteers at the scene of an accident in Beit Shemesh, 18 January 2018. (Yaakov Lederman / Flash90)
Yaakov, who is described as a former good friend of Meshi-Zahav, told Ynet that he had heard about the abuse claims for a long time. Although he himself never had evidence of any incidents, he said the rumors were known, and a male friend said that Meshi-Zahav tried to have sex with him.
“People said he was a big pervert,” Yaakov said. “I remember we laughed about him even doing a cat in a coat.”
He said acquaintances of Meshi-Zahav told that they had warned the ZAKA chief not to present to Knesset because his past would come to light.
“But they did not think it would come out when he won the Israel Prize,” Yaakov said. “He did not believe it himself.”
Yaakov ruled that Meshi-Zahav had given up by giving up the price and that more cases would become known.
He predicted that more and more people would emerge in the coming days.
“Once there is a commotion in the media, people really realize that he has done things that an ordinary person does not do,” he said.
Yaakov claims that Meshi-Zahav was able to avoid the police investigation for so long because he would help the force in other cases by providing information.
There were also others who now claim that Meshi-Zahav behaved in an inappropriate manner.
Frieda Goldstein, 29, told Ynet when she was 18 when she received sexual messages from Meshi-Zahav. She said Meshi-Zahav asked to meet her, but she turned him down, even though she was curious why he wanted to see her.
‘When I said I did not want to meet him, he started describing to me what he would do if we met. He wrote ‘I will put you on a table and then enter you from behind’. ‘
Goldstein said she, as an ultra-Orthodox girl, was shocked by the message. When she talked to others about it, everyone told me that he was perverted and that he was involved with underage girls. No one was surprised. ”
Another woman, Noga Tal, told Ynet that her grandparents lived near Meshi-Zahav and that she would visit them as a child. She said he heard rumors at the time of those assaulted by the man “but in the ultra-Orthodox community these incidents are being swept under the rug.”
Of the six allegations reported by Haaretz, the earliest are from 1983, and the latest from 2011. The report added that many residents of several ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem knew of Meshi-Zahav’s actions but said nothing. or reported him to the authorities. .
One victim said Meshi-Zahav repeatedly abused him when he was a teenager, and only years later realized he was his ‘escort, a prostitute in the full sense of the word’, he told Haaretz.
Meshi-Zahav also made headlines in January when his parents both died of COVID-19 within days and less than a month after his younger brother died in another case.
He was an outspoken critic of some of the ultra-Orthodox leadership during the pandemic, as some prominent community figures downplayed the virus, including in an interview with The Times of Israel in October.