The Awareness Center, Inc. (International Jewish Coaltion Against Sexual Assault): Case of Rabbi Yona Metzger

Case of Rabbi Yona Metzger

Yona Metzger - Alleged Sex Offender

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel

Rabbi Yona Metzger allegedly sexually assaulted four men of various ages. According to various Israeli newspapers Rabbi Metzger touched and fondled four men starting in 1998. Rabbi Metzger denied the charges, but two of the accusers passed polygraph tests that Ma'ariv had requested. Metzger said the allegations are part of a political campaign by rivals to discredit him.

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Table of Contents:

2003

Rabbi Yona Mezger - brief biographical data and books he wrote - in hebrew
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger - In Hebrew (04/25/2003)
Chief Rabbi accused of sexually harassing 4 males (04/25/2003)
Chief rabbi in molest rap (04/25/2003)
Metzger accused of sexual harassment (04/27/2003)
Chief Rabbi Story - In Hebrew
Attorney General Not Dealing With Allegations Against Chief Rabbi Metzger (04/27/2003)
Metzger accused of sexual harassment (04/27/2003)
Accountant petitions court against Metzger's appointment (04/28/2003)
Chief rabbi appointment challenged (04/28/2003)
Naming of Metzger to chief rabbi post challenged in court (04/28/2003)
High Court to hear petition seeking Metzger's ouster (05/01/2003)
Rabbinical rates (05/02/2003)
Questionably kosher (05/02/2003)
Sex Abuse On The Radar (05/07/2003)
New chief rabbi's lawyer asks court to throw out petition (05/11/2003)
News in Brief - PM paving way for one chief rabbi (05/12/2003)
A-G asks Katsav to postpone Metzger's official nomination (05/12/2003)
Chief Rabbinate Under Cloud As Police Question a 2nd Rabbi (05/13/2003)
Attorney General asks court to reject petition against appointment of Ashkenazi chief rabbi (05/14/2003)

2008

Rabbi Yona Metzger on Child Abuse and The Case of Rabbi Elior Chen (04/09/2008)

2013

Molestation allegations made against Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi date back to 1980s (06/21/2013)

The Politics Behind His Election

Metzger, Shas' Amar elected to chief rabbinical posts (04/14/2003)
Meimad rabbi: Election of Metzger may endanger rabbinate (04/15/2003)
Analysis / The most inexperienced rabbi of all (04/15/2003)
Metzger and Amar elected as new chief rabbis (04/15/2003)
Bakshi-Doron: I never dreamt Metzger had such `chutzpah' (04/28/2003)

Also see:

Case of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner

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Chief rabbi in molest rap

JTA - April 25, 2003

The new chief Ashkenazi rabbi of Israel allegedly sexually assaulted four men of various ages, an Israeli newspaper said. The Israeli daily Ma'ariv said Yona Metzger touched and fondled four men starting in 1998, according to the daily Ha'aretz. Metzger denied the charges, but two of the accusers passed polygraph tests that Ma'ariv had requested. Metzger said theallegations are part of a political campaign by rivals to discredit him.

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Breaking News

Chief rabbi linked to sexual misconduct

JTA - April 25, 2003

The newly elected Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel has been linked to sexual misconduct. The disclosures prompted some Israeli legislators to call on Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger to suspend himself from his duties until the attorney general investigates the allegations. Israeli Justice Minister Yosef Lapid told Israel Radio on Sunday he would not instruct the attorney general to launch a probe until a formal police complaint is filed. Lapid was responding to allegations in weekend news reports that Metzger had been accused of sexually harassing male youths in the past. No police complaints have been filed yet. Metzger's aides denounced the allegations as a smear campaign.

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Chief Rabbi accused of sexually harassing 4 males

By Baruch Kra ( baruchk@haaretz.co.il )

Haaretz - April 25, 2003

According to a report published in the Ma'ariv daily on Friday, recently elected chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger allegedly sexually harassed four men of various ages and from various sectors of society.

The men said that Metzger touched their bodies and fondled them. The report goes on to say that two of the men successfully passed a polygraph test, at the request of the paper. Metzger denied the allegations against him and said that that they were an attempt to sully his name.

The paper received the first account of sexual harassment some three weeks before the elections for chief rabbi which took place on April 14. According to the account, given to the paper by a secular man named David, the rabbi allegedly touched him at wedding celebration in the late 80's. According to David, Metzger touched him on the chest and arm and slipped his hand under David's shirt while the two were talking.

At the beginning of April, a religious man told the paper that he recently had met Metzger, during which the rabbi asked him to remove his shirt and then allegedly proceeded to grope his arm and chest. An investigation led to another man with a similar complaint against the rabbi.

According to the report, the third case, which took place in 1998 when Metzger was the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, came to the attention of Chief Israeli Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron. Bakshi-Doron confirmed the incident.

Metzger's office told Haaretz on Friday that, "Only a police investigation into the mercenaries trying to slander the Rabbi will shed light on the truth reveal who stands behind those filing the complaints."

Metzger's deal on TA rabbi job paved way to chief rabbinate The selection of Metzger as Ashkenazi chief rabbi earlier this month is causing former Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron grief not only because he does not value Metzger as a rabbi. Bakshi-Doron is probably overwhelmed with guilt, because despite his active opposition to Metzger's appointment as the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv in 1998, in effect, Bakshi-Doron had assisted the whitewashing of allegations that were made at the time against Metzger. It was thanks to this whitewashing that Metzger was able to circumvent the most serious stumbling-block in his career and move on to be appointed Israel's chief rabbi.

Documents obtained by Haaretz attest to the unrelenting campaign that Rabbi Bakshi-Doron and other rabbis had waged against Metzger, but also include "the whitewash paper," which paved the way for Metzger to become Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi. The troubling suspicions have never been cleared up.

Metzger was suspected of forging the signature of his driver as a witness on various ketubot - Jewish wedding contracts. Allegedly, the object was to enable Metzger to conduct as many wedding ceremonies as possible in a single evening. Allegations have also been made that Metzger had demanded payment from couples he had wed, in violation of the law.

In December 1998 Metzger got the document that saved him. He had to withdraw from the race for the post of the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, but in hindsight it seems he made the right move.

Metzger's permit to serve as a chief rabbi of a major city was taken away a few months before, in the wake of suspicions that he had violated Jewish and Israeli law on various occasions. Eventually three of Israel's senior rabbis - Rabbi Bakshi-Doron, Rabbi Shear Yashuv Hacohen and Rabbi Simha Hacohen Kook were appointed by the Chief Rabbinate to decide whether to give him back his permit.

"Rabbi Yona Metzger appeared before us," the three rabbis wrote in their report, "and said he accepted the ruling of the rabbinical court in Tel Aviv regarding the elections for the post of the city's chief rabbi." This meant that Metzger would not petition the High Court of Justice - the secular legal authority - with a request to hold the elections as scheduled, and that in effect, he had withdrawn from the race.

"Since the responses we heard from Rabbi Metzger about his conduct at the wedding ceremonies and about the signing of the ketubot are sufficient to dismiss the complaints, and since even without any further inquiries his responses give rise to doubt, in order to prevent any further grievance and damage and help conclude the affair, we have decided not to investigate further in the case," the rabbis' document continued.

The deal was as follows: Metzger would not be Tel Aviv's chief rabbi, he would get his permit back, and Rabbi Bakshi-Doron and his colleagues would not carry on with the investigation.

Rabbi Bakshi-Doron had a very negative view of Metzger's ethics. This is evident from the report he compiled about the hearing in September 1998, before the final hearing described above. One of the other panelists, who held similar views to those of Bakshi-Doron, was none other than Rabbi Shlomo Amar - who was just appointed Sephardi chief rabbi alongside Metzger.

"Sadly, it is the committee's impression that Rabbi Metzger's accounts are inconsistent and seem implausible. The committee has the grim impression that Rabbi Metzger sees the election as chief rabbi of Tel Aviv as an end that justifies disobeying the rulings of the teachers of this generation. Rabbi Metzger has presented a decisive position that attempts to justify his behavior, which contradicts the opinions of the greatest halakhic rulers and the Chief Rabbinate, and is unbecoming of a rabbi," the report said. "Testimonies were made regarding acts that indicate that Rabbi Metzger is unfit to serve as a rabbi. Rabbi Metzger was asked general questions on these matters, and provided insufficient answers. While the committee refrained from getting into specifics in order not to offend any third parties who may not even be aware of these acts, if indeed it transpires that Rabbi Metzger was responsible, there will be no choice but to find him unfit to serve as a rabbi," it continued.

Metzger also evaded Rabbi Bakshi-Doron's questions about other suspicions, concerning indecent behavior. However, the whitewash paper compiled a few weeks later allowed Metzger to keep his rabbinical title and even become Israel's chief rabbi.

Metzger attended the hearing in September 1998 with his attorney, Prof. David Libai. The Chief Rabbinate commissioned a graphology test of the driver's signatures, which indicated that the signatures had indeed been forged. However, another graphology test, commissioner by Metzger, supported his version, according to which the signatures were genuine.

When Bakshi-Doron asked Metzger about the alleged forgeries, Libaiinstructed his client not to answer.

One of the complaints against Metzger was filed by a senior Tel Aviv prosecutor. She recalled that the rabbi was given an envelope with NIS 360 at a wedding. "After the ceremony, a few minutes after the rabbi had received the envelope, he came to the parents of the bride and groom and complained that the amount was insufficient. This created a disturbance and a bad atmosphere ... To end the disgrace, the bride's father took money out of his pocket and doubled the amount ... The couple sent a letter to the honorable Rabbi Lau, who was then the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. After that, Rabbi Metzger returned the extra amount."

Aide: Fired driver seeks revenge "Two people have been running a noisy campaign against the rabbi for many years. One of them (his former driver) was fired by the rabbi 13 years ago,"Rabbi Yona Metzger's media adviser, Benny Cohen, said.

To prove his point, Cohen provided the following excerpt from the statement submitted to Metzger's attorney, David Libai, in which the driver said: "I'll be waiting for this Rabbi Metzger at every turn, and I'll trash him whatever way I can. Even with lies and inventions. As long as I can take revenge. As long as I can pull him down, to get back at him for firing me."

The allegations against the rabbi are all untrue, Cohen said; a graphology test has already proven this.

"As for the Tel Aviv elections, the rabbi never withdrew his candidacy. These elections were canceled under orders of the religious affairs minister at the time, Eli Suissa, and eventually took place a year ago. Rabbi Metzger's opponents are unwilling to accept the electors' decision, so they have chosen to use the media to try and get at the rabbi.

"Rabbi Metzger has been a public figure for more than 25 years now, he is pleasant man and has therefore won the support of both the religious and the secular communities. Rabbi Metzger will answer his foes by bringing the people of Israel together," Cohen stated.

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Metzger accused of sexual harassment

By Abigail Radoszkowicz

Jerusalem Post - April 27, 2003

Allegations of sexual harassment that had been simmering against newly elected Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger burst out in front-page headlines in the weekend edition of the Ma'ariv daily.

The paper reported that three weeks before the April 14 elections, it began to receive complaints by young men religious and secular describing how as youths Metzger had touched their arms, legs, and chests, expressing his admiration of their muscled physiques.

Sources report that the paper had planned to publish the charges the Friday before the elections, but had desisted following threats to sue the paper for libel.

On the day of the elections, Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein petitioned the central rabbinical elections committee to disqualify Metzger's candidacy on the basis of material that had reached him. Most of the complaints related to well-known charges that Metzger forged the signatures of witnesses to ketubot (wedding contracts) in order to officiate at more than one ceremony per night, and for charging outsized fees for conducting wedding ceremonies. However, sources said that among the letters presented to the committee, one contained a vague reference to homosexual relations.

Former Sephardi chief rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron stated repeatedly before the elections that, were Metzger to be elected, it would constitute hilul hashem (a desecration of God's name). He had been involved in the 1998 deal in which Metzger withdrew his candidacy for Tel Aviv chief Ashkenazi rabbi in exchange for the charges of creating invalid ketubot being dropped and retaining his rabbinic license.

Asked Saturday night if he had made known his suspicions against Metzger to Rabbi Shalom Eliashiv, the head of the non-Hassidic Ashkenazi haredi world, whose directives to support Metzger gained him his upset victory, Bakshi-Doron replied that he had sent important rabbinical messengers, including the son of the late sage Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, to tell Eliashiv "who was Metzger." Eliashiv is said to have replied to one of the messengers, Rehovot Chief Rabbi Simcha Kook, "Af al pi chen [nevertheless, Metzger should be supported]."

Asked why he didn't bring his charges to a rabbinical court, as prescribed by Jewish law, Bakshi-Doron answered, "I only heard about the candidacy about three weeks before the elections.

How could I know that a man who was ruled unfit to serve as Tel Aviv chief rabbi a man who had never held a post beyond that of neighborhood rabbi [of north Tel Aviv] or even ever served as a dayan [rabbinical judge] would become a candidate for Ashkenazi chief rabbi?"

Ma'alot Dafna Rabbi Nahum Eisenstein, a close aid of Eliashiv, noted that "nothing has been substantiated, nothing proven. Halacha [Jewish law] holds by the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Things have to be proven in a proper way, otherwise we don't believe anything."

Sources close to Eliashiv explain that he supported the National Zionist-identified Metzger against the official candidate of the National Zionist camp, Ramat Gan Chief Rabbi Ya'akov Ariel, because Metzger had promised to consult with Eliashiv on every major issue.

Ariel a leading halachic authority among the national religious camp had been expected to win handily the post of Ashkenazi chief rabbi after a deal was made with Shas to exchange support for their candidate for Sephardic chief rabbi, Shaul Amar. But the rabbinical elections were postponed until after the general Knesset elections took place, and the deal fell through. Shas head Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ordered his followers to support Metzger, even though in 1998 he, too, harshly opposed Metzger when he ran for the Tel Aviv Chief Rabbinate.

Accountant Ya'acov Werker is reportedly planning to petition the High Court of Justice on Sunday to disqualify Metzger based on 13 charges, one of which involves sexual harassment.

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Attorney General Not Dealing With Allegations Against Chief Rabbi Metzger

Arutz Sheva - 08:31 Apr-27-03, 25 Nisan 5763

(IsraelNN.com) Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein announced his office would not be dealing with allegations of criminal activities by Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, explaining that if a formal complaint were filed with Israel Police, and the statute of limitations concerning alleged wrongdoing in the past hasn't expired, only then would his office intercede.

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Metzger accused of sexual harassment

The Jerusalem Post - April 27, 2003

by Abigail Radoszkowicz

Allegations of sexual harassment that had been simmering against newly elected Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger burst out in front-page headlines in the weekend edition of the Ma'ariv daily.

The paper reported that three weeks before the April 14 elections, it began to receive complaints by young men - religious and secular - describing how as youths Metzger had touched their arms, legs, and chests, expressing his admiration of their muscled physiques.

Sources report that the paper had planned to publish the charges the Friday before the elections, but had desisted following threats to sue the paper for libel.

Metzger's office responded to the charges by blaming "well-known rabbinical sources for stooping low to besmirch Metzger's name, after earlier reports of Metzger chasing women had not had an effect." They claimed polygraph tests taken by Metzger had borne out his innocence. On the day of the elections, Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein petitioned the central rabbinical elections committee to disqualify Metzger's candidacy on the basis of material that had reached him. Most of the complaints related to well-known charges that Metzger forged the signatures of witnesses to ketubot (wedding contracts) in order to officiate at more than one ceremony per night, and for charging outsized fees for conducting wedding ceremonies. However, sources said that among the letters presented to the committee, one contained a vague reference to homosexual relations.

Asked why he didn't bring his charges to a rabbinical court, as prescribed by Jewish law, Bakshi-Doron answered, "I only heard about the candidacy about three weeks before the elections. How could I know that a man who was ruled unfit to serve as Tel Aviv chief rabbi - a man who had never held a post beyond that of neighborhood rabbi of north Tel Aviv or even ever served as a dayan rabbinical judge - would become a candidate for Ashkenazi chief rabbi?"

Ma'alot Dafna Rabbi Nahum Eisenstein, a close aid of Eliashiv, noted that "nothing has been substantiated, nothing proven. Halacha Jewish law holds by the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Things have to be proven in a proper way, otherwise we don't believe anything."

Ariel - a leading halachic authority among the national religious camp - had been expected to win handily the post of Ashkenazi chief rabbi after a deal was made with Shas to exchange support for their candidate for Sephardic chief rabbi, Shaul Amar. But the rabbinical elections were postponed until after the general Knesset elections took place, and the deal fell through. Shas head Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ordered his followers to support Metzger, even though in 1998 he, too, harshly opposed Metzger when he ran for the Tel Aviv Chief Rabbinate.

Accountant Ya'acov Werker is reportedly planning to petition the High Court of Justice on Sunday to disqualify Metzger based on 13 charges, one of which involves sexual harassment.
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Accountant petitions court against Metzger's appointment

By Baruch Kra, Haaretz Correspondent

Haaretz Daily - April 28, 2003

A Tel Aviv accountant petitioned the High Court of Justice on Monday against the appointment of Rabbi Yona Metzger as Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

The petition, submitted by accountant Yaakov Werker, who has been involved in the campaign to depose Metzger, cites legal opinions positing that Metzger, who is not qualified to be a religious court judge (dayan), cannot head the High Rabbinic Court. Moreover, numerous serious charges against Metzger were not investigated in return for a commitment on the part of the rabbi not to stand for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv in 1998, the petition says. If Metzger assumes the post, the public will lose faith in the civil service, and in particular in the civil and religious court systems, it says.

While the letter of the law does not stipulate that a candidate for chief rabbi must be qualified to be a dayan, the interpretation of the law makes it clear that this is a requirement. "Can one imagine that someone without this qualification would head this important legal system in the state of Israel?" the petition asks.

It claims that "numerous well-founded" allegations have been leveled against Metzger, including repeated forging of witnesses' signatures on marriage contracts, requests for money for conducting marriage ceremonies, fraud and threats, and sexual harassment. "These have caused a national uproar and have been published on the front pages of the country's newspapers," the petition states.

The committee that elected Metzger was not aware of these allegations, the petition says.

It points out that the outgoing Sephardi chief rabbi, Eliahu Bakshi-Doron, had agreed not to bring Metzger to trial on condition that he not run for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. "Presenting his candidacy for a higher position is deceitful and contradicts (Metzger's) commitment," the petition says.

According to Werker, the attorney general failed to react properly to the allegations and left the matter up to the elections committee without instructing it how to act. The allegations were brought to the committee's attention only half an hour before it was due to vote, he said.

Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein was under pressure Monday to prevent Metzger from assuming his post. Attorney Rami Abramov sent him a message Monday from Bakshi-Doron saying that the Sephardi rabbi would like to discuss the matter with him. Bakshi-Doron has also agreed to give a written statement to the High Court of Justice on the matter, when the petition comes up, the lawyer said.

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Chief rabbi appointment challenged

JTA - April 28, 2003

A Tel Aviv accountant petitioned Israel's High Court against the appointment of Rabbi Yona Metzger as Israel's chief Ashkenazi rabbi. The petition filed Monday cites legal opinions that say Metzger is not qualified to be a religious court judge. It also said that allegations of fraud and other improprieties involving Metzger were not investigated in return for his commitment not to stand for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv in 1998. The allegations included repeated forging of witnesses' signatures on religious marriage contracts and unlawfully demanding payment for performing weddings, the daily Ha'aretz reported. In a separate development, the daily Ma'ariv reported over the weekend that allegations of sexual harassment of male youths had been leveled against Metzger. Metzger aides have dismissed the allegations as a smear campaign.

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Naming of Metzger to chief rabbi post challenged in court

By Baruch Kra

Haaretz Daily - April 28, 2003

A Tel Aviv accountant yesterday petitioned the High Court of Justice against the appointment of Rabbi Yona Metzger as Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

If Metzger assumes the post, the public will lose faith in the civil service, and in particular in the civil and religious court systems, it says.

The committee that elected Metzger was not aware of these allegations, the petition says.

Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein was under pressure yesterday to prevent Metzger from assuming his post. Attorney Rami Abramov yesterday sent him a message from Bakshi-Doron saying that the Sephardi rabbi would like to discuss the matter with him. Bakshi-Doron has also agreed to give a written statement to the High Court of Justice on the matter, when the petition comes up, the lawyer said.

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Rabbinical rates

The Jerusalem Post, May 2, 2003

SECTION: FEATURES; Pg. 5B

The bride-to-be had first sought out then-chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau to officiate at her wedding. But when Lau's wife told her the rabbi's fee was "close to $ 1,000," the young lady turned to her second choice, then-North Tel Aviv chief rabbi Yona Metzger, because he also had "status." This was in 1998.

As a Tel Aviv-area banquet hall manager said at the time, "The elite go after the big-name rabbis for their family weddings , like Rabbi Lau and Rabbi Yona Metzger." The bride-to-be, now a 30-year-old Tel Aviv lawyer, says Metzger told her "not to worry about the fee." But on her wedding night at the Tel Aviv Hilton, she says, Metzger refused to perform the service unless he was paid $ 500 - his initial demand was $ 1,000, she notes - and even threatened to "smack" her father during the ensuing argument. The couple's families were left with no choice but to pony up the fee and give it to the rabbi, who performed the marriage ceremony in 15 minutes, the woman says, before he rushed off to do another one.

She sent letters of complaint to the Chief Rabbinate, and then to the police.

"Although I'm a secular person, I respect Jewish tradition, and I can't bear the thought that a man like this is the chief rabbi of Israel."

Metzger, 50, has been dogged for years by charges that he has made a lucrative business out of performing as many marriages as his schedule permitted for the highest obtainable fees.

"There are so many stories like these going around, from so many people," says Bar-Ilan University Prof. Asher Cohen, an expert in Israeli religious politics. "I myself heard such a complaint against Metzger from friends whose wedding I attended," he notes.

There's also nothing new in the charges that Metzger forged the signatures of witnesses on wedding contracts, or ketubot, so he wouldn't have to "waste time" sitting through the weddings.

Even the accusations against him of sexually harassing women have been in the air for quite some time.

What is new, and what surfaced in Ma'ariv's explosive investigative story last Friday, is that Metzger allegedly "petted" young heterosexual men and made admiring remarks about their bodies in the course of giving them rabbinical advice. The newspaper quoted four unnamed men who made that claim. At Ma'ariv's request, two of the accusers submitted to lie detector tests, and were found to be telling the truth.

Further evidence was provided last week by Rabbi Haim Druckman, a former MK and a preeminent figure in the National Religious world.

"I spoke to Druckman five times last week, and he told me that a yeshiva student, who's now about 30, told him that Metzger had touched him in a sexually suggestive way when he, the student, was 18," says Tel Aviv accountant and political activist Ya'acov Werker, who filed complaints against Metzger this week with the Supreme Court, and previously with the attorney-general and the police.

Druckman was in Poland this week and could not be reached for comment.

Metzger's office has denied all the accusations against him, blaming "well-known rabbinical sources for stooping low to besmirch Metzger's name." His office puts it all down to sour grapes by religious rivals who couldn't stomach Metzger's upset election as Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

Metzger has surrounded himself with high-powered, well-connected defenders - attorney David Libai and public relations adviser Benny Cohen. His representatives note that the rabbi submitted to two lie-detector tests on charges of sexual harassment against women, and passed them both.

"After attempts to smear the rabbi's name with malicious charges of sexually harassing women didn't work, now the vicious charge of sexually harassing men is being tried. After this pathetic attempt also fails, one may assume that the slanderers will try accusing the rabbi of sexually harassing animals," his office maintains.

AT A GLANCE, the accusations of sexually harassing men against Israel's chief rabbi call to mind the scandal in the Catholic Church, which is reeling from charges by hundreds of men who say they were sexually abused by priests. Is Metzger, then, the tip of the iceberg?

Such a comparison doesn't hold water, though; the catalyst for the priests' sexual exploitation of boys almost certainly was their forced celibacy - a constraint that doesn't apply to rabbis.

To observers unfamiliar with Israel's religious world - including most secular and Diaspora Jews - it would seem that such a scandal surrounding the country's chief rabbi would cause acute demoralization among religious Zionists - the "crocheted kippa" community - from whose ranks the Chief Rabbinate is drawn.

But at Bar-Ilan University, a religious Zionist institution, the young men in kippot are indifferent to Metzger's plight.

"We haven't really talked about it much," says Shmulik, 26, a student at the university's Institute for Advanced Torah Studies.

"We don't consider Metzger to be one of our own," adds his friend Noam, 27, a computer science student. "In our view Metzger was the rabbi only of the 'elite,' of the Tel Aviv 'northsiders,'" notes Shmulik.

Neither of them knows of any religious decree or remark Metzger ever made. They aren't the only ones.

"As a rabbinical authority, Metzger wasn't on the A list or even the B list," says Cohen. "I don't know of any observant Jew who looks to him as a religious leader."

Metzger has never been a dayan, or judge on a religious court, yet as chief rabbi he will become chief judge of the Supreme Rabbinic Council.

"The secular equivalent would be if a young judge on a magistrate's court - or maybe even just an attorney - were appointed president of Israel's Supreme Court," notes Cohen.

Asked who they regarded as spiritual leaders, Shmulik and Noam both mention former chief rabbis Avraham Shapira and Mordechai Eliahu, both of whom now provide religious guidance for the political decisions of the National Religious Party. Shmulik adds the name of Rabbi Druckman, whose hesder, or IDF-connected, yeshiva he attended. Noam offers the name of his hesder yeshiva rabbi, Nahum Rabinovitch.

Both Bar-Ilan students say they don't care one way or another if Metzger resigns or is forced out of office. Their only real distress regarding Metzger was that he was elected chief rabbi in the first place, ahead of the National Religious camp's candidate, Petah Tikva Chief Rabbi Ya'acov Ariel.

"That was the real scandal," says Noam. "This other stuff is just extra."

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Questionably kosher

by Abigail Radoszkowicz

Jerusalem Post - May 2, 2003, Friday

The Chief Rabbinate is in bad need of a prayer.

That Rabbi Yona Metzger, an audaciously underqualified society rabbi against whom charges of misconduct have circulated for years, was elevated to the rank of Ashkenazi chief rabbi is in itself a scandal of far greater significance than the sexual harassment allegations which surfaced in headlines a week and a half after his election.

Spiritual head of the fashionable north Tel Aviv neighborhood for the past 15 years, the perpetually smiling Metzger has never served as a dayan (religious judge). Yet, for half of his 10-year term as chief rabbi he will preside as no less than president of the Supreme Rabbinic Court, switching roles after five years with the Sephardi chief rabbi to become head of the Chief Rabbinate Council.

He does not have a reputation as a rabbinic scholar, nor is he considered a halachic authority.

Metzger has been tarred with scandal for years. In 1998, his rabbinical credentials were returned to him after he promised to drop out of the race for Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Tel Aviv. Charges that he repeatedly forged his driver's signature as a witness on ketubot (religious marriage contracts) in order to tie as many nuptial knots as possible per evening and demanded large sums of money from couples' families at the wedding ceremonies he conducted were never formally investigated. However, according to a close associate of supreme haredi authority Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, Metzger had the one qualification that "would bring honor to the chief rabbinate: he committed himself to consulting a greater authority." That is, with Eliashiv himself.

This was the one quality Petah Tikva Chief Rabbi Ya'acov Ariel, the frontrunner before Metzger's upset victory, lacked. Even more threatening from the haredi perspective, Ariel is a religious Zionist ideologue with great halachic standing among the National Religious public - a public to which Metzger himself, until a month or so ago, was associated.

A December 2002 Ma'ariv interview with Ariel portrayed a 65-year-old rabbi attuned to the concerns of the religious Zionist avant garde. He emphasized the need for Torah links to cultural avenues such as film, theater and poetry, envisioned women becoming halachic authorities and judges ("although not in this generation") but not rabbis, and came out against rulings to disobey army orders to dismantle settlements issued by other National Religious authorities such as previous chief rabbi Avraham Shapira.

Although Ariel had failed to win the chief rabbinate in his first attempt 10 years ago, Shas's strength at the end of 2002 was on the wane, and it had agreed to a deal in which they would back Ariel's candidacy in exchange for NRP support for their candidate for Sephardi chief rabbi, Tel Aviv chief rabbi Shlomo Amar.

But when general elections were called for January, those for chief rabbi were delayed. Afterwards, all the cards were reshuffled. Ariel now attracted extra animus from the haredi camp who believed he had given NRP leader Effie Eitam rabbinical authorization for the coalition agreement with Shinui, a charge which Ariel categorically denies.

SUDDENLY, THREE weeks before the election, Metzger's candidacy was announced. Rabbi Yosef Efrati, Eliashiv's closest aide and gatekeeper for access to the nonagenarian sage, had learned together with Metzger when they were both students at the Kerem Beyavne Yeshiva. Eliashiv become convinced - correctly as it turned out - that Metzger had the most realistic chance of beating Ariel.

The Shas/NRP deal fell through, and the NRP made the fatal mistake of entering two candidates of its own for Sephardi chief rabbi (one the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's bitter rival, Mordechai Eliahu) against the popular, respectable Amar, and Yosef ordered his followers to vote for Metzger.

Former Sephardi chief rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, who had presided over the 1998 deal that let Metzger off the hook, frantically tried to prevent Eliashiv from supporting his candidacy. In a recent statement issued by Eliashiv, he "categorically denies that any messengers from Rabbi Bakshi-Doron came to me." An aide to Eliashiv acknowledges that they wereaware of "rumors" of charges against Metzger, but unless proven otherwise, the assumption was that Metzger was innocent.

Do they have any regrets, now that an Israeli newspaper report about the sensational charges against the newly minted spiritual leader of Israel is posted on Islam Online?

"No. Metzger still has not been convicted of any wrongdoing."

Before the elections, Eliashiv had even asked Rabbi Shlomo Dichovsky to step down from the contest, even though the universally respected lecturer at Tel Aviv University and head of the Supreme Religious Court, who some years ago refused Chief Justice Aharon Barak's invitation to be appointed to the Supreme Court, was, unlike Metzger, associated with the haredi world. Dichovsky refused. Ironically, among the complaints filed in 1998 against Metzger there was reportedly one by Dichovsky, claiming that Metzger had threatened to blackmail him unless he withdrew from the contest for Tel Aviv chief rabbi.

Eliashiv's supporters point out that the mere 20 votes Dichovsky garnered bear out the sage's political acumen in insisting that Dichovsky had no realistic chance. The 150- member electoral body that elects the chief rabbis is made up of 80 rabbis and 70 representatives of the public, including two ministers and five MKs. The latter seven, chosen by the new Likud government, were meant to go to Ariel, but the secret ballot still went 63 to 56 in favor of Metzger, a stunning upset by the anti-government coalition of the Left, Shas and the Ashkenazi haredim.

DEAL-MAKING with little pretense of spiritual or moral considerations - Jews, apparently, have no patience for hypocrisy - comes as no surprise to Sharon Shenhav, legal adviser to The Center for Women in Jewish Law at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. She became one of the 10 members of the commission which appoints rabbinical court judges in the wake of the uproar that followed the elevation of Rabbi Hagai Izirer to the Supreme Rabbinic Court, despite the objections of a coalition of women's rights organizations which took the unprecedented step of publicly opposing him.

Izirer's promotion, and that of similarly insensitive- to-women Rabbinical Court judge Matitiyahu Shrem, were part of an Eliashiv and Yosef-brokered deal, one of a series in which the two representatives of the Bar Association - both since replaced - had no problem taking part. Shenhav vows that she will never "be part of any deal."

The two chief rabbis are also members of the commission for appointing rabbinical court judges, along with the religious affairs minister, the justice minister, two MKs (traditionally religious), and two rabbinical court judges.

Getting in their own people as dayanim is, according to Prof. Menachem Friedman of Bar-Ilan University, one reason the haredim take such an interest in the institution that was once considered the icon of religious Zionism.

Friedman believes that that image was always a religious Zionist myth. "The Chief Rabbinate: A Dilemma Without a Solution," the title of an article he wrote back in 1972, sums up his view today. The institution cannot function, says Friedman, because Jewish society has no hierarchical structure. Unlike the Catholic Church, for instance, it has no formal supreme religious authority. Israel follows the tradition of Eastern Europe, in which the rabbis are chosen by the entire community, including its secular members. That is why, just as was sometimes the case in Eastern Europe, neither the chief rabbis nor the local ones are culled from the elite.

Haredim would agree. Adds Eliashiv's aide Efrati, "We are respectful of the chief rabbinate which represents the orthodox rabbinate. However it's a political position, and it has nothing to do with a person's level of scholarship or whether he is considered a halachic authority."

The haredim covet the institution's power and prestige, but those of their own who would have a chance of winning the post "wouldn't stoop" to do it.

They have a point. Great Jewish religious leaders traditionally are seen as increasing in knowledge as they grow older, but candidates for chief rabbis cannot be past 70. Also, chief rabbis suffer the humiliation of giving up their positions after the 10-year term runs out. Traditionally, both here and abroad, the post of chief rabbi - whether of city, town or country - was for life. In non-Jewish parallels, neither the pope nor United States Supreme Court justices are pensioned off.

Israelis must interface with the official rabbinate for the life cycle events of marriage, divorce and death. However the by-now large section of Israeli society that does not qualify as halachically Jewish but claims no other religion, lacks the elemental right to marry. Haredim feared that Ariel would be too permissive in his conversion policies.

The economic life of restaurants that want a kashrut certificate as well as of those farmers who use the heter mechira devised by the first chief rabbi, the legendary Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Hacohen Kook, also depend on rabbinate policy.

Eliashiv and Bakshi-Doron had a major falling out over the kashrut certificates and shmita procedures of the chief rabbinate, which Eliashiv wants to be more stringent, even though haredi communities already run a variety of hechsherim (kashrut supervisory authorities) of their own. Efrati and Ariel head competing institutes of halachic agriculture research, and that of Efrati has a contract with the present chief rabbinate.

"Our goal," says the Eliashiv associate, "is to have more input in the rabbinate. We want to put in certain dayanim associated with our community, and to fill whatever positions we can."

FRIEDMAN EXPLAINS that when the British conquered Palestine, they wanted to continue the status quo antebellum, in which the Hacham Bashi (now known as the Rishon Lezion), the chief rabbi of Palestine under the Turks, was the religious leader. The Ashkenazim refused to accept a religious leader who was Sephardi, and so the British created the post of Ashkenazi chief rabbi. But there were problems from the first, says Friedman. The British recognized the Jews as a religious community, with the rabbinate as its leadership, yet it never functioned as such, in contrast to the Christian and Muslim leaders of their similarly recognized communities.

When a figure of stature who offers halachic solutions to major state problems such as conversion - as did the late Rabbi Shlomo Goren - was selected, he immediately become the target of an unrelenting campaign of delegitimization. Indeed, Eliashiv's aide says that Eliashiv himself resigned from the Supreme Rabbinical Court in protest at Goren's election.

"The haredim don't accept that kind of leadership. Any solution of the conversion crisis would provoke immense dissension," says Friedman.

Given that the state gives power to religious rule, then a hierarchical religious judicial structure has to be installed in the same way as the judicial branch of every modern state must include a supreme court, concludes Friedman.

Before the Diaspora, Jews had a formal religious hierarchy, the Sanhedrin. But when the first minister of religious affairs, the Mizrachi leader Rabbi Yehuda Leib Maimon, proposed reconvening one, a storm of protest by the haredim quickly doused the idea.

Many religious Zionist leaders, such as MK Benny Elon, openly say that Eliashiv purposely intended bringing down the prestige of the chief rabbinate by backing Metzger. Yet the outgoing chief rabbis are also not considered great halachic authorities. In fact, though bitter rivals, it has often been remarked how remarkably Metzger resembles Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau. Both are characterized by their impressive appearance, strong rapport with the secular, lackluster learning, and now, even sexual harassment charges, which plagued Lau as well when he was running for chief rabbi.

Metzger, however, might not be able to ride out the storm. The Israel High Court of Justice has set May 8 for a hearing to discuss the petition by accountant Ya'acov Werker to disqualify Metzger from serving.

The shift from spiritual leaders to public servants that the selection of Lau and Bakshi-Doron represented was even demonstrated visually when they moved from the majestic but run-down Heichal Shlomo to the nondescript office building that now houses the Chief Rabbinate. Should the opportunity arise, the chief rabbis would have to cross Jerusalem traffic to reach the little balcony jutting out from the former rabbinate quarters on King George Avenue, which was built, some say, for the day that the coming of the messiah is proclaimed.

When Gilad Kariv, an attorney associated with the IRAC (Israel Religious Action Center), tried to persuade Emmanuel Halperin the night before the elections to run a segment on them in his late night news show, Halperin begged off, insisting that the subject was too boring. Paradoxically, Metzger may yet prove to be the salvation of the Chief Rabbinate by forcing the country to focus on the nature of that anomalous institution.

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High Court to hear petition seeking Metzger's ouster

by Abigail Radoszkowicz

The Jerusalem Post - May 1, 2003, Thursday

The High Court of Justice has set May 8 for a hearing to discuss a show cause petition by accountant Ya'acov Werker to disqualify Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger from serving as chief rabbi.

Metzger was elected, along with Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, on April 14, despite long standing charges against him and an election day petition by Attorney- General Elyakim Rubinstein to the five-man electoral board to delay the elections as a result of additional charges against Metzger.

Werker's petition includes a letter from outgoing Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, dated April 25, relating the circumstances by which serious charges against Metzger in 1998 were not formally investigated and his rabbinical permit not withdrawn at that time. According to the letter, when elections for Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv were called that year, Metzger was the unquestioned frontrunner. "City officials came before me and the rabbinical council, bringing with them the opinion of great rabbinical authorities that Rabbi Metzger's election must be prevented and his rabbinical certificate (teudat hakosher) taken away, for the candidate was neither decent nor worthy," the letter said.

At the initiative of the Metzger family and its attorney, Bakshi-Doron writes, "I was requested to end the investigations and discussions with a promise by Metzger that he would not run for the Tel Aviv rabbinate. To prevent the desecration of God's name with needless publicity, I agreed to the proposal and met with Rabbi Metzger at the initiative of my friend, Haifa Chief Rabbi Shear Yeshuv Cohen, at that latter's home in Haifa, where Metzger committed himself before us not to run for the Tel Aviv rabbinate, so as not to be disgraced by losing his rabbinical license."

According to Bakshi-Doron, while Metzger and Prof. David Libai now Metzger's attorney were told by him and his colleagues on the rabbinical council that discussions of the personal allegations against Metzger would not be continued and Metzger would not be stripped of his rabbinical certificate, nonetheless the serious halachic implications of charges that he forged names of witnesses demanded an investigation by a special beit din (rabbinical court) away from the media spotlight. Bakshi-Doron writes that he repeatedly endeavored to have the special beit din continue hearings on the case, to no avail.

"I never imagined," Bakshi-Doron winds up the letter, "that this rabbi would have the hutzpah to put forward his candidacy for the position of Chief Rabbi of Israel after his commitment not to put forward his candidacy for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv."

Among the criminal charges that Werker's petition numbers is "the important and astounding" fact that out of seven sample ketubot from weddings that Metzger conducted during the period in which the driver who accused him of forging his signature was in his employ, the 1998 hearing committee found that six contained definite forgeries.

The petition notes that each of the two chief rabbis presides as president of the Supreme Religious Court for five years of their ten-year term, while Metzger is not even qualified to serve as a dayan (religious judge).

According to the petition, Metzger and Amar have already agreed that Metzger will serve first as president of the Supreme Religious Court and Amar first as head of the Supreme Religious Council, exchanging positions five hears hence.

The petition notes that recent allegations of sexual harassment prominently played in newspaper headlines would, along with all the other charges against Metzger, lower the prestige of the rabbinate and damage the public trust.

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Sex Abuse On The Radar

by Judy Klitsner

The Jewish Week - May 7, 2003

With many accusations against rabbis, authorities and the religious establishment are slowly coming to grips with the problem.

Jerusalem — There is a growing public awareness in Israel of sexual abuse by rabbis, in part because of so many new cases being reported, including accusations against the recently elected Ashkenazic chief rabbi.

Unfortunately, these charges have come out in the press instead of being dealt with in a systematic and sensitive manner within the religious system. This points to the overall failure of the religious establishment to monitor itself and to take decisive action when complaints are brought.

As a result, the public is reading about it, becoming angry and increasingly aware of the need for some kind of action.

For years following the abuse I suffered at the hands of Rabbi Baruch Lanner, I tried in many ways to persuade religious leaders to stop his progress. When he was finally exposed and deposed (only because of the press), I began receiving calls from many quarters about abuses by other rabbis. I tried to help minimize the damage these rabbis could do by calling whomever I knew to put pressure on institutions that hired or promoted offending rabbis.

There were a few of us out there, people with extra sensitivity to this issue, and we learned to enlist each other's help whenever needed. Sometimes we succeeded; often we didn't.

I was greatly disturbed that an issue as serious as this was being addressed in this ad hoc way. Where were our leaders? Why was this not an issue of concern to all?

I finally decided to look for ways to address the problem in a more structured way. The immediate impetus was an expose some months ago in the Israeli daily Maariv on Rav Shlomo Aviner, the revered chief rabbi of Beit El and a central figure in the religious Zionist camp — "the rabbi's rabbi," the "holy of holies," as he has been called by his followers.

In the expose, two women accused the rabbi of creating emotionally intimate relationships with them. These relationships included his expressions of his love for them during regular late-night phone conversations, extracting details from them of their sexuality and promoting an unhealthy emotional dependence on him.

The women claimed they reported these problems to the highest echelons in the rabbinic establishment and were either passed along to other rabbis or told to keep silent and destroy any correspondence they had from the rabbi.

In response, the rabbinic establishment displayed a nearly unprecedented show of unity: on the very day the article appeared, my children (along with thousands of other children) returned from school with a letter signed by dozens of respected rabbis denouncing the "lies" that were reported by allegedly unstable, delusional women. Instead of calling for some kind of investigation, the community rallied around Rav Aviner and against his accusers.

Believing there had to be some way to defend these women and others like them, or at least to give them a chance to be heard seriously, I contacted the organization Kolech, a group of Orthodox feminists led by Chana Kehat, a religious scholar and activist. Fortuitously, I found that the group was beginning to organize itself around this issue. While discussing strategies for addressing the problem as a whole, a new case presented itself that put Kolech in the eye of the storm.

Several women called Kolech to complain about Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen, a former head of, and later a lecturer in, the midrasha at Bar-Ilan University, who they claimed sexually harassed them when they were students at the university some years ago. Despite strong pressure against Kehat, who was accused of pursuing a "feminist" agenda, the university appointed a committee, headed by a rabbi, which heard testimony from several women in the presence of the accused rabbi. In the end, the unambiguous ruling was to dismiss Rabbi Cohen.

He is still fighting the decision and claims openly that he is the victim of a slander campaign by the "feminists." Rabbi Cohen says the feminists want to push rabbis out of their positions so they can replace them. The Bar-Ilan commission found no basis to his arguments and ruled that Kolech was operating entirely in good faith.

While I found the charge about feminists repugnant, it is fair to ask why we are practically alone in seeking to stop this terrible phenomenon, with the help of the press.

I can say from firsthand experience that these women do not relish this type of activity and in fact would much prefer to be working on positive reforms in the religious world. There is a palpable sense of distaste, yet a solemn duty to follow up on complaints that no one else wants to touch. This is a job that rabbis should be doing themselves but are not, for various reasons (collegiality, politics, fear of airing dirty linen in public, not wanting to deal with "unsavory" topics, etc.)

The Knesset, to its credit, recently held a special session, chaired by Gila Finkelstein, on the question of sexual harassment in the religious community. Many educators, including heads of prominent institutions of Torah learning for women, were in attendance as speakers addressed a number of issues, including the need for acceptable guidelines in conduct between rabbis and students.

Partly as a result of all this, I have been working for a long time toward constructing a rabbinical ethics committee. It would follow the precedent of other professional ethics committees, such as those of doctors, psychologists and university professors, setting down clear sets of norms and guidelines for acceptable behavior. The committee would hear and investigate complaints in a sensitive and thorough manner, reach conclusions and act on them.

We are in the process of bringing together various women's organizations in the hope of getting a broad spectrum of leaders to support the plan. We then have to find rabbis who will agree to serve at the head of such a committee, to give it the religious stamp of approval. So far the rabbis we have approached are reluctant to be actively involved, but they recognize the need for such a committee.

Though there are signs that the community and its leadership are beginning to face the severity and widespread nature of the problem, clearly there is much work yet to be done. n

Judy Klitsner is an instructor of Bible at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.

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New chief rabbi's lawyer asks court to throw out petition

By Moshe Reinfeld, Haaretz Correspondent

Haaretz - May 11, 2003

Rabbi Yona Metzger asked the Supreme Court on Sunday to reject a petition filed by accountant Yaakov Werker against his appointment as Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

Metzger's legal representative, Prof. David Liba'i, claimed in the petition that Werker's request should be rejected out of hand since it is based on tendentious and untrue information, the source of which was from rabbis who objected to Metzger's appointment.

Liba'i also claimed that the plaintiff failed to submit any affidavits testifying to the factual veracity of his claims. In addition, Liba'i argued that once the appointment of a chief rabbi has been published in official protocols, it cannot be appealed.

In addition to asking the court to throw Werker's petition out, Liba'i also claimed that its legal grounds do not merit a court hearing. He said that there is no basis to the claim that Metzger, as chief rabbi, will serve as president of the rabbinical court of appeals even though he is not qualified to serve as a religious judge.

On the one hand, claimed Liba'i, the law clearly states that even a rabbi who is not qualified to serve as a religious judge can stand for election as chief rabbi. He added that, once appointed, both chief rabbis would be able to serve as religious judge, without needing a separate appointment. Liba'i referred the court to an agreement between the Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis, whereby Metzger would serve as president of the Chief Rabbinical Council for the first five years of his tenure, while the Sephardi chief rabbi would serve as president of the rabbinical court of appeals.

Liba'i also rejected Werker's claim that Metzger made a deal to prevent an investigation into complaints against him. He argued that the allegation were fully investigated by a hearing of the rabbinical court of appeals and a special rabbinical court hearing in Tel Aviv. Metzger, Liba'i said, was not granted any concessions at these hearings, which ended with the decision to allow him to continue to serve as a municipal rabbi.

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News in Brief - PM paving way for one chief rabbi

Haaretz - Monday, May 12, 2003 Iyyar 10, 5763

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday set up a special ministerial committee entrusted with preparing a bill for the election of a single chief rabbi for the country. The committee will be headed by Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and include Ministers Yosef Lapid, Binyamin Elon and Effi Eitam. Lapid said one chief rabbi, instead of two, would mean a large savings for the state and would also promote the concept that "we are one nation and not two sects." The two serving chief rabbis were informed that they would not be in office for 10 years, as has been the norm till now. (Gideon Alon)

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A-G asks Katsav to postpone Metzger's official nomination

By Moshe Reinfeld

Haaretz Daily - May 13, 2003

Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein has asked President Moshe Katsav to delay the official nomination ceremony of Israel's new chief rabbis until the High Court of Justice concludes its deliberations on a petition to disqualify Rabbi Yona Metzger as chief Ashkenazi rabbi.

The High Court is set to debate the petition, filed by accountant Yaakov Werker, tomorrow. Rubinstein will only submit his response to the petition to the High Court today.

In response to Rubinstein's proposal, Metzger's spokesman said that since the rabbi is convinced his righteousness will win through and that the lies spread about him will finally be refuted, Metzger will wait patiently until the High Court settles the matter.

Metzger's legal representative, Prof. David Liba'i, has already asked the High Court to throw out the petition against his client. Liba'i emphasized that there is no basis to the claims made in the petition that Metzger is not qualified to serve as a dayan (religious judge) and therefore as president of the rabbinical court of appeals.

Liba'i also claimed that the law clearly states that even a rabbi who is not qualified to serve as a dayan can stand for election as chief rabbi. He further noted that under an agreement with Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Metzger would serve as president of the Chief Rabbinical Council for the first five years of his tenure while Amar would serve as president of the rabbinical court of appeals. Metzger would not sit on the rabbinical court at all during this period.

Liba'i also noted that a large number of previous chief rabbis - including Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim, Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron and Rabbi Yisrael Lau - were chosen as national rabbinical leaders without actually being certified as rabbinical court judges.

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Chief Rabbinate Under Cloud As Police Question a 2nd Rabbi

By Mitchell Ginsburg

Forward - May 13, 2005

JERUSALEM -- In a devastating blow to the credibility of Israel's state rabbinic establishment, the nation's Sephardic chief rabbi, Shlomo Amar, was interrogated this week by the police on suspicion of complicity in the abduction and beating of a 17-year-old youth who was dating his daughter.

Amar is not known to be suspected of direct involvement in the assault, but he is believed to have been present in his home while the youth was being beaten. His wife, a son and several associates were being detained this week on suspicion of direct involvement.

The case, embarrassing in itself, is particularly damaging to the rabbinate because it comes just two months after police questioned Israel's other chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, in an unrelated case. Metzger was the first chief rabbi in Israeli history to undergo criminal interrogation.

Metzger is under investigation on suspicion of receiving unlawful benefits from a Jerusalem hotel. The charges are the latest in a string of suspicions, including sexual abuse and extortion, that have dogged him for years, beginning long before he was named Ashkenazic chief rabbi in 2003.

With the Metzger probe still open, the eruption of the Amar affair has touched off anguished talk in some Orthodox circles that the very institution of the Chief Rabbinate is threatened. "The chief rabbis were once like a lighthouse of righteousness, the moral compasses of the nation," said Rabbi Yehuda Gilad, a former Knesset member who heads the respected Ma'ale Gilboa yeshiva. "Today, the way things are going, I won't mourn the passing of the institution."

The Chief Rabbinate is a government institution that oversees marriage, divorce and other functions. It is closely tied to the religious Zionist movement, which views Israeli statehood as an expression of divine will. In the last decade, however, the Zionist rabbinate has faced a mounting challenge to its authority from the so-called Haredi or ultra-Orthodox rabbinate, which denies any theological significance to Israeli sovereignty and views religious Zionism as a compromise with secularism.

The investigations of the two chief rabbis are certain to weaken theinstitution further.

The Amar incident began as an online flirtation between the rabbi's daughter, Ayala, 18, and an ultra-Orthodox teen 17-year-old. The two reportedly met in a chat room and eventually dated. Ayala's mother, Mazal, herself an influential figure in the Orthodox community, is said to have learned of the relationship and demanded its cessation, but the couple continued to meet secretly.

In April, Ayala's older brother Meir, 31, allegedly became involved. Police spokesmen say there is "reasonable suspicion" that Meir -- who left his father's house at 13, abandoned religious practice and has a criminal record -- was summoned by his mother, who is currently under house arrest.

He allegedly set out for Bnei Brak on April 26 with Ayala and two associates, reputed former Palestinian collaborators who now live in the Israeli Arab town of Kalanswa. Meir Amar, who is said to split his time between Kalanswa and the West Bank Jewish settlement of Tekoa, allegedly forced Ayala to call her suitor and tell him to meet her. When he came to the car, police said, he was grabbed at knife-point and whisked away to Kalanswa, where the gang cut off his side locks and beat him through the night.

The head of interrogations of the Dan Region of Israel's national police, Chief Superintendent Alon Grossman, said the systematic abuse was reminiscent of the gory 1971 film about gang violence, "A Clockwork Orange."

At 6 a.m., police say, the teen was driven to the chief rabbi's home. The beatings continued for several hours before he was given bus fare and sent on his way. The rabbi was in the house at the time, the youth reportedly testified.

During police investigations, the suitor, who went by the chat name "lover," testified that he saw the rabbi's wife bring cookies to the men beating him. According to Yediot Aharonot, the suitor claims that the rabbi knew and heard what was going on at all times.

Rabbi Amar was in Thailand when the investigation broke last week, and police questioned him shortly after he returned Tuesday. The interrogation, which took place in Amar's office, lasted five hours. Amar was described as cooperating fully with police.

Police need explicit authorization from the attorney general to interrogate a chief rabbi, who has the same status in law as a Supreme Court justice.

The other chief rabbi, Metzger, first came under suspicion in 1998 while he was serving as a neighborhood rabbi in north Tel Aviv and running for chief rabbi of the city.

Initially, witnesses claimed the rabbi had illegally accepted payment for conducting weddings despite his status as a government official. Witnesses also said Metzger extorted families for extra payment on the night of the wedding and repeatedly had his driver forge his signature on wedding documents so that he could conduct as many weddings as possible in a single night.

In September 1998 a commission of senior rabbis, including then-Sephardic chief rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi Doron, reportedly found Metzger's explanations of his actions "insufficient" and ruled him "unfit to serve as a rabbi." The commission later agreed to drop the ruling on condition that he withdraw his candidacy for chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, which he did.

In 2003, while running for chief rabbi of Israel, Metzger came under suspicion again. Four men told the daily Ma'ariv that the rabbi had groped them. Two of the men passed a voluntary lie-detector test.

Three weeks before the April 2003 chief rabbinical election, Bakshi Doron let it be known that he considered the possible election of Metzger "a desecration of God's name." In addition to the allegations, Metzger was too junior a rabbi to serve as a rabbinical judge. Among the chief rabbi's duties is supervision of the rabbinical courts.

Nonetheless, Metzger garnered 63 votes on the 150-member rabbinical election council, a mixed body of rabbinical and political appointees. His main rival was the widely respected chief rabbi of Petah Tikva, Ya'akov Ariel.

Metzger's victory was reported at the time to have been fueled by strong support from the leading figure in the ultra-Orthodox rabbinate, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, who is considered by many Orthodox Jews around the world to be the final authority in rabbinic law.

Elyashiv's followers said they were backing Metzger despite his weaknesses because of his promised loyalty to Elyashiv on rabbinic law matters. Critics, however, grumbled that the ultra-Orthodox sage pushed the weaker candidate in order to discredit the institution of the state rabbinate. "Elyashiv supported the travesty that is Metzger because he wanted to thwart Ariel, but also because he wanted to embarrass the chief rabbinical post into oblivion," said Shahar Ilan, religious-affairs reporter of the daily Ha'aretz.

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Attorney General asks court to reject petition against appointment of Ashkenazi chief rabbi

By Moshe Reinfeld

Haaretz Daily - Wednesday, May 14, 2003 Iyyar 12, 5763

Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein yesterday asked the High Court to reject a petition against the election of Rabbi Yona Metzger as Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, or to freeze the start of his 10-year tenure until police complaints filed against him are thoroughly investigated. Rubinstein also asked that Metzger be prevented from taking his place on the rabbinical court of appeal. The Attorney General's requests were made in a written reply to the High Court, which were submitted by attorney Eyal Yinon of the State Attorney's Office.

In his letter to the court, Rubinstein wrote that the law governing the running of the chief rabbinate does not grant power to any body to ouster either of the chief rabbis, or even to start disciplinary proceedings against them. Only the chief rabbi himself is entitled to submit a letter of resignation to the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Rubinstein stated that this state of affairs is not satisfactory, since he believes that all public official should be subject to supervision and should not be immune from impeachment. But until the Knesset changes the law, he stressed, a serving chief rabbi cannot be removed from office.

Rubinstein added that the circumstances behind the petition are particularly problematic, since Metzger has never been the subject of any criminal investigation. A quasi-disciplinary hearing into his behavior ended without result, and some of the detailed "facts" mentioned in the petition are based on press cuttings and rumors.

Rubinstein emphasized that, even if Metzger's public standing has been harmed by the suspicions of wrongdoing against him, no one in Israel has ever been removed from a public position under such circumstances.

Rubinstein wrote that both he and the police had looked into the suspicions against Metzger, and into the subsequent Ma'ariv article, and reached the conclusion that the facts of the case do not warrant a criminal investigation. Both the attorney general and the head of the police investigation division believe that complaints against Metzger for collecting money for performing wedding ceremonies, and improper behavior toward several couples, do not constitute a crime. The complaints were also examined by a rabbinical panel, which also found no evidence of wrongdoing.

As far as accusations against Metzger that he faked wedding certificates during the 1990s, Rubinstein believes that even if there were evidence to support the allegation, the statute of limitations would now apply.

Rubinstein also argued that allegations of sexual harassment and having homosexual relations do not justify a criminal investigation, since it is not a crime to have homosexual relations and there is no evidence to support the allegations. In addition, argued the attorney general, not one single person had complained to the police that Metzger sexually harassed them.

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Story Behind His Election

Metzger, Shas' Amar elected to chief rabbinical posts

By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

Haaretz - April 14, 2003

A 150-member committee on Monday elected Rabbi Yona Metzger as Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi and Rabbi Shlomo Amar as Chief Sephardi Rabbi. The two will be the successors of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Israel Meir Lau and Chief Sephardi Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron.

The committee that elected the two - in a secret ballot - was composed of 80 rabbis and 70 representatives of the public.

In addition to chief rabbis of local government and rabbinic judges, the committee is also comprised of mayors, ministers, Knesset members and public figures appointed by the Minister of Religious Affairs. This composition allows no specific sector a majority, and leaves much room for coalitions and deals.

In the morning, Rabbi Moshe Rauchberger withdrew his candidacy for Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, Israel Radio reported. Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, a leading Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox rabbinic authority, had asked Rauchberger to remove his candidacy so as to improve the chances of Rabbi Metzger, whom Elyashiv supported.

Since Metzger is not considered a halakhic authority, the ultra-Orthodox contingent - which wants to get back at the NRP for hooking up with Shinui - believes he will easily adopt Rabbi Elyashiv's rulings. At the same time, he is well-liked among the secular voters in the election committee.

Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who is affiliated with Shas, was considered the leading candidate ahead of the election. But National Religious Party candidate Rabbi Yaakov Ariel had been expected to place first in the contest for the post of Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi.

The current race was not even supposed to happen. A "deal" between the National Religious Party and Shas many months ago named NRP's Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, as the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, and the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who is affiliated with Shas, as the Sephardi Chief Rabbi.

But since Shas was eventually not part of the coalition, the balance of power between Shas and the NRP has been broken, and the deal is off. NRP named two candidates of its own for the post of Sephardi Rabbi - Kiryat Ono's chief rabbi, Ratson Arousi, and Safed's chief rabbi, Shmuel Eliyahu.

The list of candidates also included Rabbi Shlomo Dichovsky, the chief rabbinic judge. Although in Halakhic scholarship he is held in very high esteem, he has not created a political support base. The same is true also of Rabbi Eliyahu Aberjil of Jerusalem.

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Meimad rabbi: Election of Metzger may endanger rabbinate

By Haaretz Service

Haaretz - April 15, 2003

Outspoken religious Zionist rabbi and former Meimad MK Yehuda Gilad on Tuesday morning attacked Monday's election of Rabbi Yona Metzger as the new Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, saying that the choice alienates religious Zionists and warning that it could signal the end of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

"This is a very sad day for the Chief Rabbinate of Israel," Gilad told Israel Radio. "I would even say that this might be the beginning of the end for that institution."

Gilad, who is active in promoting religious-secular dialogue and heads a liberal Orthodox yeshiva in Kibbutz Ma'ale Gilboa in the Jordan valley, attributed his statement to Metzger's affiliation with the ultra-Orthodox community.

Metzger was supported by the non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox community, headed by leading authority in Jewish law Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. His victory was a bitter defeat for the National Religious Party, whose candidate, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, was the leading runner but eventually won only 56 votes.

"At the end of the day, the only population that related seriously to [the Chief Rabbinate] was the religious Zionist population, since the ultra-Orthodox population doesn't recognize the Chief Rabbinate and the secular population thinks the rabbinate is an issue for the religious," said Gilad. "And if the religious Zionist population loses its faith in [the Chief Rabbinate], then we have a very sad situation."

Metzger, however, told Israel Radio Tuesday: "I am the rabbi of all of Israel - of the religious, the secular and the ultra-Orthodox."

Minister of Labor and Social Welfare and NRP MK Zevulun Orlev told Israel Radio Tuesday that even those who do not support the election of Metzger must still accept and respect the rabbis who were chosen.

"It's clear that we see the two rabbis who were chosen as the chief rabbis of Israel, and as of now they're everyone's rabbis and we're all obligated to respect them," said Orlev.

However, he added that what "pains" him is that while the ultra-Orthodox population doesn't incorporate the State of Israel into its religious ritual, it's still trying to control the state's rabbinate.

"The State of Israel is not part of the [ultra-Orthodox] spiritual world: They don't recite the prayer for the welfare of the state, Independence Day is not a day of praise and thanks... and they suddenly try to control the rabbinate, which expresses the height of Zionism, the height of statehood," said Orlev.

Metzger said he would work with those who have criticized his election. "Some people see deficiencies," he said. "We'll work together in a good spirit... to prevent disagreement."

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Analysis / The most inexperienced rabbi of all

By Shahar Ilan

Haaretz - April 15, 2003

Assume MK attorney Ronni Bar-On was appointed president of the Supreme Court. Sounds bogus? That, more or less, is the meaning of the election of the rabbi of north Tel Aviv, Yona Metzger, as the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi.

A chief rabbi's term in office is divided in two: for five years, the rabbi serves as the president of the Chief Rabbinate, and for another five years serves as president of the High Rabbinical Court. Metzger, who has never worked as a dayan (rabbinical judge), will now become the highest authority in Israel on matters of conversion and divorce.

Metzger now becomes the boss of Rabbi Shlomo Dichovsky - the most prominent dayan in Israel, who was asked by the President of the Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, to join the Supreme Court. Dichovsky was one of those running against Metzger, and was probably the most suitable candidate. Maybe it was precisely because of his outstanding qualifications that he was not elected.

Even if Metzger has the sense to postpone his term as president of the High Rabbinical Court to the second part of his term, from now on he will nevertheless serve as a dayan on the court and will preside in any case he hears. As President of the Chief Rabbinate, he will have to answer highly complex questions about kashrut, even though until now he was not even authorized to give a kashrut stamp to to a neighborhood eatery.

The Chief Rabbinate might be facing an even greater embarrassment if a petition is brought to the High Court of Justice concerning complaints that were filed against Metzger, including one about forging marriage certificates. Could the High Court, the greatest foe of the Chief Rabbinate, disqualify Metzger? And why should Metzger be disqualified when his predecessor, Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, was allowed to keep his job despite accusations of sexual harassment?

There were those who argued yesterday that if Lau's election seemed like the lowest point in the rabbinate's history, Metzger's election set a new record. Rabbi Lau was the prototypical representative rabbi, although it was not quite clear who and what he represented, and Metzger is a Lau clone. But while Lau was appointed chief rabbi after serving as the chief rabbi of Netanya and of Tel Aviv, Metzger only worked as a neighborhood rabbi, a unique post in the public service with a blurry definition - nobody in fact knows just what a neighborhood rabbi is supposed to do.

It has already been said that Rabbi Metzger's master plan was to follow Rabbi Lau's footsteps, first to the rabbinate of Netanya and then to that of Tel Aviv. One of Rabbi Metzger's main stumbling blocks on his route was none other than Rabbi Lau. Now Metzger skyrocketed to the highest job of all, and Lau will have no choice but to see him take his old seat.

Metzger was supported by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, the leader of Degel Hatorah, who is consider by the ultra Orthodox community as the greatest contemporary Halachic ruler. Elyashiv is a past member of the High Rabbinical Court, and surely knows that Metzger is unfit to lead it. What does this say of Rabbi Elyashiv? Maybe that the means justified the end - preventing the appointment of Rabbi Ya'acov Ariel, the candidate backed by the National Religious Party.

Perhaps the progress of Elyashiv's confidant, Rabbi Yosef Efrati, in the next few years will provide the key to Elyashiv's choice. Will Metzger help secure Efrati's appointment as the chief rabbi of Jerusalem? Will Efrati's affiliates get special breaks in produce imports on years of shmita (every seventh year, when Jewish farmers must leave fields fallow)? Or maybe this is simple Machiavellianism, and Elyashiv's only objective was to humiliate the Zionist Rabbinate as much as he possibly can.

Lau is not the only loser in this race. Until the last elections, the National Religious Party had a deal with Shas: Shas candidate Shlomo Amar would be appointed Chief Sephardi Rabbi, and NRP candidate Ariel would be appointed Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi. NRP has paid a dear price for joining the coalition, and Shas's revenge is oh-so-sweet. Amar has indeed been elected, and will be replacing outgoing Sephardi Rabbi, Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron. Ariel, however, is out.

NRP's spiritual leader, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who played all his cards to get his son, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, elected chief Sephardi rabbi, is another loser. Eliyahu took a beating from his old-time rival, Shas leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who backed Amar. Amar won 124 to Eliyahu's 14 votes.

But Metzger's election is not all bad. Although he was supported by the ultra Orthodox wing, he was undoubtedly the most moderate and most Zionist candidate. If he has the courage to stay moderate, he may prove to be the biggest surprise that the Chief Rabbinate could expect, and Rabbi Elyashiv might rue every vote he has given him.

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Metzger and Amar elected as new chief rabbis

By Jonathan Lis

Haaretz - April 15, 2003

Rabbi Yona Metzger was elected Ashkenazi chief rabbi and Rabbi Shlomo Amar was elected Sephardi chief rabbi yesterday.

Rabbi Metzger won the support of 63 of the 150 members of the election committee, and Amar won a sweeping victory with 124 votes. The committee comprises 80 rabbis and 70 representatives of the public, including Knesset members and mayors.

A few hours before the vote, Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein forwarded a request to disqualify Metzger over three complaints that had been filed against him. However, the committee is unauthorized to disqualify candidates and can only postpone the vote, but decided eventually to hold the vote as scheduled.

Metzger was supported by the non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox community, led by Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv. His victory yesterday was a bitter defeat for the National Religious Party, whose candidate, Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, was the leading runner but eventually won only 56 votes.

Although there was no explicit instruction from the prime minister, most Likud representatives apparently backed the failed deal between NRP and Shas, according to which Ariel and Amar were to be voted in.

The winning deal eventually was that between United Torah Judaism and Shas, which backed Metzger and Amar.

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Bakshi-Doron: I never dreamt Metzger had such `chutzpah'

By Baruch Kra

Haaretz - Monday, April 28, 2003 Nisan 26, 5763

Outgoing Sephardi chief rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron sent a scathing letter to the Chief Rabbinic Council on Friday complaining about the appointment of Rabbi Yona Metzger as Ashkenazi chief rabbi.

In the letter, Rabbi Bakshi-Doron describes an agreement reached with Rabbi Metzger in 1998 following a number of allegations against Metzger, including sexual harassment, forged signatures on wedding contracts, fraud and threatening other rabbis.

Under the 1998 accord Metzger was allowed to keep his rabbinic credentials in return for a promise not to contest the post of chief rabbi of Tel Aviv.

"It never occurred to me this rabbi [Metzger] would have the chutzpah to stand for chief rabbi of Israel after promising not to contest Tel Aviv's rabbinate," Bakshi-Doron wrote. He also plans to appeal to Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein on the matter.

Asher Maoz, a law professor at Tel Aviv University, has already written to the attorney general, asking to freeze the appointment of Metzger on the grounds that he is not qualified to be a religious court judge (dayan).

Section 17 of the Chief Rabbinate Law stipulates: "During half of their term as Israel's chief rabbis, one will serve as president of the [Chief Rabbinate] Council and the other will serve as president of the High Rabbinic Court, and during the second half they will switch roles."

In his appeal to the attorney general, Maoz wrote: "This directive raises a problem due to the fact that Rabbi Metzger lacks authorization to serve as a judge... It would be inconceivable for someone who is not authorized to serve as a judge in a lower religious court to be appointed as head of the religious court system by virtue of his election as chief rabbi."

Metzger's appointment to head the religious courts would be comparable to selecting a Supreme Court president who is not qualified to be a traffic court judge, Maoz said.

Referring to the 1998 decision by the Chief Rabbinic Council, Maoz asked: "Will a chief rabbi be appointed as president of the High Rabbinic Court, even if the Council strips his authorization upon concluding that `the way he conducts his life is not appropriate to the status of a judge in Israel?'"

For the record, the professor noted that he had supported a different candidate for chief rabbi in the contest that was decided earlier this month.

Rabbi Metzger's attorney, former justice minister David Liba'i, wrote to the attorney general yesterday, dismissing the objections to his client as baseless.

Rabbi Yona Metzger on Child Abuse and The Case of Rabbi Elior Chen
by Vicki Polin, MA, NCC, LCPC, Executive Director
The Awareness Center's Daily Newsletter - April 8, 2008

It seems strange that Rabbi Yona Metzger would be making the following statement, especially since he was accused of sexual misconduct/clergy sexual abuse (with four men) several years ago.

I strongly disagree with the statement Rabbi Metzger made regarding excommunicating the parents of the children who were so horrendously abused. Even though the actions came from their own hands, I believe that they were being manipulated and were acting under the explicit directions of their spiritual leader/cult leader, Rabbi Elior Chen.

Many individuals who get involved with cults, often have histories of child abuse and or neglect. From past experience in working with ex-cult members, I found that women who have left abusive relationships are also more susceptible to getting involved in cult like groups.

The basic issue is that adult survivors of child abuse (emotional, physical and sexual abuse) and those battered as adults are looking for unconditional love. What happens is they get manipulated in believing that their leader represents "the truth." They no longer are able to access their ability to use deductive reasoning / critical thinking.

Though I do believe these parents should no longer have custody of their children, I do not believe that we should make blanket statements stating they should all be excommunicated. We need to look at each situation on a case by case basis. I also have mixed feelings about the parents and the criminal cases that will be brought up against them. If these parents were unable to access their critical thinking, would they then be considered mentally ill? Were they at the time of each act unable to discern right from wrong? I'm not trying to make excuses for their behavior, it's just that I think there is much more to the story then what we are reading in the newspapers. The parents psychiatric help and exit counseling. This can occur either in a prison or a psychiatric facility. I believe that the parents are most likely individuals who most likely have the potential for rehabilitation.

I do not believe this is true when talking about Rabbi Elior Chen. I do agree with Rabbi Metzger that Chen should loose his rabbinical title and believe he should spend the rest of his life in a prison. I do not believe he will ever be safe to be out with the rest of our society.

Below is the article that was in the Jerusalem Post, below that is information on Destructive Cults.

Also see:

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Metzger: Abusive parents and rabbis should be 'excommunicated'

Jerusalem Post - April 9, 2008

Following a spate of allegations of child abuse in the religious community, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metger called on rabbis to "unhesitatingly renounce" such violent acts.

In a statement released Tuesday night, Metzger said that abusive parents and rabbis must be "condemned" and "excommunicated."

He told community rabbis to express their disapproval and the disapproval of the Torah for such "acts of brutality."

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Molestation allegations made against Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi date back to 1980sFour men claim to have been groped by Rabbi Yona Metzger in cases stretching back to the '80s, according to a report in Israeli newspaper Maariv.

Haaretz - June 21, 2013

Allegations of sexual abuse against Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger were reported in the Israeli media on Friday, just one day after he was questioned in connection with suspicions of bribery, fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, and breach of trust.

Four men of varying ages and from different sectors of society came forward, and told their stories to the newspaper Maariv, alleging that they had been groped by Metzger in incidents dating as far back as the '80s. According to the report, two of the complainants were examined by polygraph test at the newspaper's request, and passed the test.

Rabbi Metzger denied the allegations and stated that it was an attempt to sully his reputation.

Maariv received the first account three weeks ago. David, a secular Jew, alleged that in the late 1980s at a wedding where Metzger officiated, the rabbi touched his chest and his arms. David also alleged that Metzger placed his hand under his shirt during a conversation between the two of them. At the beginning of April, a religious Jewish man told the newspaper that in the recent past he met with the rabbi for a halakhic consultation and at the meeting the possibility of his professional advancement was discussed.

The complainant alleged that at the rabbi's request, he removed his shirt and the rabbi groped his chest and arms. Maariv's research for the story led to another man who told of a similar event that occurred between him and the rabbi. According to the Maariv report, the incident with the third man was brought to the attention of Israel's then Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron in 1998, when Rabbi Metzger was a candidate for the position of Tel Aviv chief rabbi. Rabbi Bakshi-Doron was the head of a disciplinary committee that was established to discuss allegations of marital contracts (called ketubot in Hebrew) forged by Rabbi Metzger. However, the committee decided not to publicize the complaint.

Rabbi Bakshi-Doron confirmed that the complainant told him that Rabbi Metzger touched the complainant without the latter's consent.

According to a report published by Haaretz on Friday morning, despite the active opposition of Rabbi Bakshi-Doron to Metzger's appointment as Tel Aviv chief rabbi in 1998, Bakshi-Doron gave an unintended hand in covering up the allegations against at Metzger at that time. Various documents received by Haaretz describe the tough struggle waged by Bakshi-Doron and other rabbis against Metzger's promotion to Tel Aviv chief rabbi, but among these documents appears the “cover-up document” that retroactively cleared Metzger's election as chief rabbi of Israel.

In 1998, Metzger's certification to serve as chief rabbi of a large city was suspended following many allegations of violations of Jewish law and Israeli law that had piled up against him. At the end of a long, drawn-out, process, three senior Israeli rabbis were appointed by the Council of the Chief Rabbinate to determine whether Metzger's certification should be returned to him. The three were Rabbi Bakshi-Doron, Chief Rabbi of Haifa Rabbi She'ar Yashuv Cohen and the chief rabbi of Rehovot, Rabbi Simcha Hacohen Kook.

At the disciplinary hearing the complaints were discussed. The complaint at the heart of the hearing was made by Metzger's driver who claimed that his boss had signed his name as a witness to dozens of marital contracts without his knowledge so that Metzger would be able to officiate over more weddings per night. For every wedding ceremony he officiated, Metzger would receive between $500 and $1,000.

The chief rabbinate hired a graphologist, Shaul Hilleli, to examine the claim. Hilleli said the forgery allegation had substance. During the hearing, Metzger evaded Rabbi Bakshi-Doron's questions regarding additional allegations – including those regarding immodest behavior. By the end, the sides reached an agreement that Metzger would not become Tel Aviv's chief rabbi. In exchange, Metzger would be given back his certification and Rabbi Bakshi Doron and his colleagues would not complete their inquiry and let the matter drop.

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Thursday, June 07, 2007

Case of Rabbi Yona Metzger - Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi in Israel

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