Alleged victim of ZAKA founder claims top rabbis stopping others from speaking to police
Meshi-Zahav vociferously denies the allegations and intends to clear his name
An alleged victim of ZAKA co-founder Yehuda Meshi-Zahav has reportedly come forward to accuse top rabbis in Israel's ultra-Orthodox community of preventing those he sexually abused from going to the police.
Speaking to Hebrew broadcaster Channel 12, the alleged victim, only identifying himself as L., said that Meshi-Zahav's history of alleged sexual misconduct is widely known in the ultra-Orthodox community and that top rabbis are currently working to keep other accusations from surfacing.
“He would come to the neighborhood with his new car and let all the children ride in it inside Mea Shearim and that was when he would busy himself with them,” the man said.
“It’s not something we heard — we saw and experienced it.”
The man identifying himself as L. said that he has not given a formal statement to police out of fear that the community will brand him as a "moser," or an informer who betrays fellow Jews to secular authorities.
“I have a rabbi and I do what he tells me,” said L. “If they would just declare that we are not ‘mosrim,’ if they would give us permission to go and testify, just see what would happen.”
Meshi-Zahav's alleged activities were first exposed in a bombshell report published by Israeli daily Haaretz last week, detailing a torrent of damning allegations made by both men and women, some of whom were minors at the time, over a three-decade period.
Meshi-Zahav, a prominent figure within the ultra-Orthodox community, reportedly used his social position and status in ZAKA, an emergency medical response service, to sexually exploit teens and minors since the 80s.
While the news shook Israel's secular population, his conduct was reportedly known for some time within the ultra-Orthodox community.