The co-founder and chairman of the ZAKA volunteer emergency
response group was accused Thursday of sexual assault, rape, and abuse
by six people in a report by the Haaretz daily, which said there are
likely many more cases.
The allegations against Yehuda Meshi-Zahav were made by both men
and women, some of whom were minors at the time of the alleged events.
Meshi-Zahav is a prominent figure in the ultra-Orthodox community who
earlier this month was awarded the Israel Prize’s lifetime achievement
award. ZAKA is a major part of Israel’s emergency response services at
home and abroad.
Meshi-Zahav took advantage of his status, power, money, and even the
organization he heads to commit sexual assault, the Haaretz report said.
One alleged victim said he forcibly undressed her and raped her
after offering financial aid. The woman said that while Meshi-Zahav
forced himself on her, he threatened, “If you talk, a ZAKA jeep will run
you over.”
Another said Meshi-Zahav repeatedly abused him when he was a
teen, only realizing years later he was his “escort, a prostitute in the
full sense of the word,” he told Haaretz.
The report said several other women have testified that he masturbated in front of them and touched them sexually.
Meshi-Zahav denied the allegations, telling the paper the claims
“are baseless” and will cause “irrevocable damage” to his good name.
Of the six allegations reported, the earliest is 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 did not say anything or report him to authorities.
At least one case reached police, but was closed in 2014 due to a lack of evidence.
The case also involved Meshi-Zahav’s brothers, Moshe and Rami.
Rami was eventually convicted of raping a relative and imprisoned, the
report said.
Moshe and Yehuda were suspected of assaulting 16-year-old girls, and
Yehuda was suspected of rape, which he denied. Moshe fled the country
after the case was opened, returned a few months ago, and died shortly
after.
The investigators turned up one alleged rape victim, a woman in her
20s, but she refused to file a complaint against Meshi-Zahav, as did the
other women he was suspected of assaulting in the case. The
investigation was closed and its existence was not made public.
Magen for Jewish Communities, a non-profit that works to support
survivors of sexual abuse, said the alleged assaults were especially
shocking due to Meshi-Zahav’s community standing.
“It’s always incredibly painful to hear terrible stories of sexual
abuse by a trusted figure in a victim’s life,” the group’s director,
Shana Aaronson, told The Times of Israel. “In the case of Yehuda
Meshi-Zahav, many in the community find it incomprehensible to imagine
that a man who is so well-known and beloved could be capable of such
horrific acts against innocent and vulnerable children and adults.”
“As difficult as it is to hear these allegations, it is far more
painful to have experienced them. As a community, we need to rally
around the victims whose lives have been devastated by not only the
abuse, but the secondary trauma of knowing that their abuser is known
and heralded by many as a hero,” Aaronson said.
Yehuda Meshi-Zahav. (courtesy of ZAKA)
Earlier this month, Meshi-Zahav was declared a winner of the Israel Prize’s lifetime achievement award for his contributions to Israeli society.
Education Minister Yoav Gallant announced that the prize would go to Meshi-Zahav for his decades of work in ZAKA.
The prize selection committee said in a statement that Meshi-Zahav
has made an “outstanding” contribution to advancing assistance at
disaster events and creating unity in Israeli society while having “a
sense of purpose and a true belief in the need to build bridges and hold
dialogue.”
For three decades now Meshi-Zahav has led Zaka, which has become an
essential element of Israeli’s emergency response operations at home as
well as abroad, the statement said, and he “is an example and role model
for the spirit of volunteering in Israeli society in all its forms.”
Meshi-Zahav also made headlines in January when his parents both died of COVID-19 within days of each other and less than a month after his younger brother died of a different cause.
He was a vocal critic
of some of the ultra-Orthodox leadership during the pandemic, as some
prominent community figures downplayed the virus, including in an October interview with The Times of Israel.
Founded in 1989, ZAKA is one of Israel’s most recognizable emergency
response groups and has responded to various disasters in other
countries.
In addition to providing emergency response services and assisting in
search and rescue operations, ZAKA also helps in the grim task of
finding and identifying body parts following terror attacks, air crashes
and other disasters.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/zaka-emergency-group-co-founder-accused-of-multiple-cases-of-rape-sexual-abuse/?utm_source=The+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=daily-edition-2021-03-12&utm_medium=email
