Rabbi Metzger is accused of sexual harassment of four adult men

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, April 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – One of Israel’s two top Rabbis is accused of sexually harassing four men of various ages and from various sectors of society, reported an Israeli newspaper on Friday, April 25.

The four men accused the chief rabbi of Israel’ Ashkenazi Jews of central and eastern European origin Yona Metzger of repeatedly "groping" them, Ma’ariv said on its front page, adding that they passed a lie detector test.

The daily Haaretz, for its part, revealed that Metzger was barred by the chief rabbinate from running for Tel Aviv rabbi in 1998 following several complaints.

Metzger and his Sephardic counterpart, Shlomo Amar, representing Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Jews, were both elected for 10 years on April 15.

Metzger denied the allegations against him and said that they were an attempt to sully his name.

Complaints

Ma’ariv 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 man named David, the rabbi allegedly touched him on the chest and arm and slipped his hand under David's shirt while the two were talking at wedding celebration in the late 80's.

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.

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 who confirmed the incident, said the Israeli daily.

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, he had assisted the whitewashing of allegations that were made at the time against Metzger, said the paper.

It was thanks to this whitewashing that Metzger was able to circumvent the most serious stumbling-block in his career, it added.

Documents obtained by Haaretz 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’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."

Forgery

The rabbi 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, Haaretz reported.

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.

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 were appointed by the Chief Rabbinate to decide whether to give him back his permit.

One of the complaints against Metzger- Haaretz said- was filed by a senior Tel Aviv prosecutor who 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," she