Reports describe Leifer forcibly kissing her victim, who struggled to break free during the prolonged attack lasting several minutes. The assault victim, Samantha Azpardi, is a 36-year-old Aboriginal Australian currently serving a two-year sentence for fraud related to false claims of being a rape and human trafficking victim. Fellow inmates informed the media that the two women had maintained a prior relationship that deteriorated into conflict.

Leifer, who has eight children, remains confined to a secure prison wing with restricted privileges, including only 20 minutes daily for outdoor exercise or common area access. Despite her incarceration, prison authorities have granted Leifer certain accommodations within the secure facility, including permission to bake traditional challah bread and maintain a microwave in her cell.

The convicted rapist was found guilty of sexually assaulting students Dassi Erlich and Elly Sapper during the period from 2007 to 2014, while they attended the educational institution under her management in Melbourne. Following the accusations, Leifer escaped to Israel, where prominent ultra-Orthodox community leaders provided protection and vigorously contested her extradition to Australia. She was ultimately extradited in 2021 and subsequently convicted on rape charges.

The post Israeli pedophile Malka Leifer filmed sexually assaulting prisoner in Melbourne jail appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

"I suffered painful sodomy, truly felt like I was splitting in two. It's a terrible experience, but there's something about these things, perhaps in their strangeness, that's like... maybe the hardest component is that if you tell people about these things, they'll think you're crazy. I remember many types of severe sexual abuse, but there's something about these ritualistic abuses that makes them the bottom of darkness."

In direct words and with a clear voice, Emunah (pseudonym, like all victims' names in this article) describes the severe abuse she allegedly experienced in her childhood. Organized sexual abuse that included "ceremonies" with supposed religious significance. Horrifying ceremonies in which religious people, some from her own family, sacrificed her as an offering for spiritual transcendence or redemption.

Emunah is not alone. More than ten women between the ages of 20-45 with whom we spoke describe a severe phenomenon raising serious concern that in Israel, like many countries worldwide, organized sexual abuse of children is occurring right under everyone's nose.

"Perhaps the world knows that rape occurs, that incest exists, but this the world doesn't know," Emunah said. "These acts have been kept secret for years, perhaps because of their insanity... it was always very, very strange. As if there was an internal logic, but it was so crazy... very strange things happen there, normalized in a ritualistic and orderly manner. There's a specific time, there's when to say this verse and when to say that verse, there's an order as if things are supposed to be done this way..."

Each woman we interviewed during our investigation has a different life story. They come from different areas of the country, from north to south. Each is at a different place in her life. Some are students, others work and manage careers and family lives, and there are also young women barely surviving, clinging to life by their fingernails.

These women did not know each other previously, grew up in different communities, and come from different sectors and religious streams. Yet the ritual abuse stories they describe are similar in ways that compel us to listen and not turn a blind eye. Some were harmed in early childhood educational settings or in girls' schools, others in their family homes, yeshivas or synagogues. In this article, we present only a very small sample from many hours of interviews and information, and some descriptions in this article are difficult to read. The great fear expressed by everyone who spoke with us is that organized sexual abuse of children continues even today.

"Blessed who releases the bound"

Victim. Sacrifice. Punishment. Correction. Transcendence. Redemption. These are recurring concepts in the testimonies. The prayers, the mutterings, the ecstasy surrounding the victims. The extreme pain, humiliation, and torture. The crushing of personality and soul. Testimony after testimony after testimony from women who experienced organized childhood abuse that included group rape performed within ceremonial and ritual frameworks.

We met these women over the past few months. We spoke with family members of some victims, with treatment professionals, and with experts in Israel and abroad specializing in trauma and dissociation (a range of conditions from emotional detachment to complete disconnection from feelings, sensations, memories, and more). We collected information about organized ritual child abuse – a phenomenon recognized worldwide.

The picture emerging from all gathered information is disturbing and difficult. It requires, at minimum, a deep and meaningful investigation by law enforcement authorities. "It is a religious-national mission to expose this phenomenon and uncover the truth," a treatment professional in the religious community familiar with details of the phenomenon told Israel Hayom.

Most women we interviewed come from religious Zionist or ultra-Orthodox communities, although Shishabbat received additional testimonies about similar cases in secular society. Therefore, it's important to emphasize that these findings don't target any specific sector, but rather direct a beam of light toward suspected crimes of the most severe kind imaginable – crimes committed in a parallel world transparent to sight, though deeply dark and sinister.

Several rabbis' names appeared repeatedly in some testimonies. Multiple complaints filed at different police stations around the country were all closed relatively quickly. Even when suspicions arose previously about a network harming children in Jerusalem, police investigators, at best, lacked sufficient tools or knowledge to properly investigate.

In that case, extensively exposed in 2019 on the TV program The Source, suspicions arose about a pedophile network that harmed dozens of children in the Nahlaot neighborhood. Investigators tended to dismiss it as an "invention," "exaggeration," or "panic" by parents and treatment professionals, and closed the case with almost no relevant indictments.

A man named Benjamin Satz was convicted and sentenced in 2013 to imprisonment for committing indecent acts and sodomy against girls and boys aged 5 to 8. Another suspect was acquitted due to reasonable doubt. In practice, dozens of children remained traumatized and required years of emotional therapy.

"Not outsiders in the community"

"I remember a pentagram on the floor, usually in red. When the ceremony was in the forest, the pentagram was marked with a hoe and surrounded by lit candles in a circle. The rabbi would bless, 'Blessed who releases the bound,' men around prayed with prayer shawls, sometimes dressed in black, while the rabbi wore a white robe. There were several men and boys around the ages of 16-17 who participated in ceremonies for spiritual transcendence.

"There was one time they asked me to dig a hole and lie in it. Other times, they injected me with something and said, 'Now you'll feel better,' after which my body went limp. They would repetitively read Psalms, like 'A Psalm of David, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.' They told me 'you are special, you are chosen' and they would insert... I remember a palm branch, Hanukkah candles, a shofar."

Limor (pseudonym) grew up in a religious-ultra-Orthodox home. Her father, she says, always acted violently toward her and her mother. Throughout the years, she required medical treatment at a hospital and was accompanied by a professional due to injuries caused by the violent abuse she experienced.

According to her testimony, her father was the one who brought her to these "ceremonies." Being delivered by family members is characteristic of many testimonies we gathered. Limor says sometimes the ceremony took place in a forest, other times in a secluded apartment. There were instances when she witnessed and heard other children being abused. Testimony regarding additional child victims repeats across multiple cases. In many testimonies we documented, women also participate in the ceremonies and abuse.

"Organized rape of children is one of the most horrifying phenomena I encounter," Dr. Anat Gur said, a psychotherapist specializing in treating women and trauma, head of the Psychotherapy Program for Sexual Trauma Treatment at Bar-Ilan University and the Tel Aviv Rape Crisis Center. "It's a phenomenon probably much more widespread than we imagine. It exists in many places you wouldn't expect to find it."

Boaz (pseudonym), a senior treatment professional in the religious community, agrees, "The abusers are typically not outsiders in the community. One patient told me, 'Understand, he's the one who blows the shofar on Rosh Hashanah.' The shofar symbolizes a channel – the person considered most spiritually worthy blows the shofar because he's closest to God. And he's the one telling her she is evil, that he's helping with her atonement in this lifetime. Do you understand the distortion?"

"Crime without witnesses"

Beyond the women who dared to meet and speak with Israel Hayom, professionals possess information about additional victims who report sadistic ritual abuse during childhood. The content emerging from these accounts shows remarkable similarities. From all gathered information, it appears that in most cases, the sexual abuse began in very early childhood at home, perpetrated by a father, grandfather, or other family member. In other cases, the abuse occurred in educational or therapeutic settings.

"What I've observed over the years," Dr. Gur said, "is that whoever endures these things suffers catastrophic damage. That's also one of the challenges with exposure – the victims are so shattered that they're difficult to believe. The more cruel and sadistic the abusers are and the younger the victims, and the more horrifying the abuse, the smaller the chance that perpetrators will face justice, because there's no one left to testify. The abusers so thoroughly destroy the victims' souls that it becomes a crime without witnesses, which of course serves a society that continues to abuse or maintain these rituals."

Dr. Joanna Silberg, an international expert in treating dissociative disorders among children and adolescents and former president of the International Society for Trauma and Dissociation, guided the treatment of 70 children who allegedly fell victim to organized abuse in Israel over five years. In Chapter 14 of her book "The Child Survivor," she describes the severe symptoms the children suffered "due to multiple forms of abuse – physical, sexual, emotional, and spiritual."

Dr. Silberg notes several sources for the numerous testimonies about cases of organized abuse in Jerusalem. In one case reported in professional literature, a child abused in Israel and treated in the US described how several men tortured him and recalled an incident where they submerged his head underwater.

Descriptions of sadistic abuse appear consistently across all testimonies we collected, as in Emunah's story: "There was a ceremony like a circumcision that I underwent. I was 10 or 11. It took place in the settlement's synagogue. They tied me up, similar to the binding of Isaac, and wounded my genitals.

"My father is there, my mother is there, a rabbi from the settlement. I'm tied to a table, looking at the window and imagining how I could jump through it, how I might tie a rope and rappel down to the stones. I constantly wanted it not to be happening. That's what characterizes it... I continuously thought about how it wasn't happening, how I could escape. I kept telling myself I wasn't there. It's extremely difficult to understand that I was actually there. That it's me – the bound child."

"The youngest and most vulnerable"

Organized sexual abuse occurs, as noted, throughout the world. Researcher Michael Salter defines it as "a conspiracy of several attackers to abuse several victims."

Rabbi Dr. Udi Furman quotes in his article "Ritual Abuse in Israel" Salter's definition of ritual abuse as an ideological framing in organized contexts of child sexual abuse, "functioning as strategic practices through which abusive groups instill in victims a misogynistic worldview, violently, to control them."

"In other words," Rabbi Furman writes in his article, "ritual abuse occurs when a religious, political, or spiritual authority uses their position of power to manipulate victims' belief systems and thereby control them." According to him, "ritual abuse is primarily a strategy employed by groups involved in producing images of child abuse, child prostitution, and other forms of organized abuse, and does not constitute a separate category of violence."

Rabbi Furman also presents research by Johanna Schröder and additional researchers from Germany, who examined attitudes among 165 adults who testified that they were victims of organized ritual sexual abuse, as well as attitudes of 174 professionals who supported victims of this type of abuse. In 88% of reports from both groups – therapists and victims – identical ideological expression emerged. The ideological content and objectives were also presented in a similar order: "justification of violence," "justification of sexual exploitation," and "maintaining power and control," followed by "maintaining group commitment and ensuring redemption."

"The researchers conclude that ideologies are primarily means to justify organized sexual violence," Rabbi Froman said. However, in his article, Froman argues that some reports in Israel suggest ideology wasn't merely a means to justify organized sexual violence, but formed the foundation of the abuse.

Rabbi Furman references, for example, the Nahlaot case, which "is just one of many similar cases, most occurring in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. For instance, a private ultra-Orthodox court writes that ritual sexual abuse is cruel and frequent, accompanied by traumatic, accusatory, and confusing ceremonies. The abuse is carried out by large criminal organizations and/or cults and/or secret organizations, with financial investment and recruitment of assisting personnel. The abuse carries for its perpetrators substantial profits such as satisfaction of deviant urges, commerce and pornography, threats and extortion, and more."

According to Furman, the court document describes the practice of organized abuse: "From preparing the scene, through recruiting collaborators from educational institutions and transportation drivers, to the ceremonies themselves... The ceremony takes place under the leadership of an important rabbi. After a Torah lesson, approximately every two weeks, parents gather with children for what is called 'soul correction.' All couples recite Psalms together, sing verses repeatedly with melody, all while standing without clothes. They stand in a circle, naked, praying, lighting candles. The children are positioned in the middle of the circle, also naked."

In the document, intended for parents, educators, and rabbis, the ultra-Orthodox court "Shaarei Mishpat" in Jerusalem details numerous methods and actions taken by abusers, aiming to warn and raise awareness of this spreading phenomenon and to protect children. Among other things, the document states that to shield themselves from exposure, abusers deliberately act in extreme ways contrary to logic, "so that even if children tell, they will sound completely delusional."

In a "partial" list, actions are described, including abusers using disguises and masks, alongside sadistic torture such as forcing children's hands into boiling water, submerging them underwater for several seconds, or threatening them with aggressive animals to frighten them and intensify the trauma effect. Additional mentioned actions include inserting objects and work or kitchen tools into the children.

To humiliate children and instill feelings of guilt and shame, perpetrators show them pictures of themselves naked or give them food while telling them they ate "carrion," organize mock "wedding" ceremonies between children, force them to eat feces, and stage their burials.

"They collapse all self-trust and ability to resist," Rabbi Froman said. "The regular and frequent abuse is so destructive that the children despair of 'normality' and the abuse becomes their life routine. Psychiatrists have diagnosed a complete 'personality fracture' in the normal part, allowing the child to continue functioning normally in school."

According to Dr. Silberg, in each group, individual participants may have their own motives, such as sexual deviations, bizarre ideological affiliations that include conducting ceremonies, or economic enrichment, for example, through human trafficking for sexual exploitation, or producing images of child sexual abuse. These motives are not necessarily shared by all members.

Dr. Silberg further notes that networks engaged in producing and distributing child pornography, including organized abuse, have been exposed worldwide, and "despite the recurring, almost ideological skepticism, there have been several successful convictions of members of organized abuse networks worldwide."

Over the years, there have been multiple examples of cases where authorities successfully exposed and convicted members of such networks. According to Dr. Silberg, as well as other researchers, since the development of the internet, and especially the emergence of peer-to-peer networks and the dark web, the phenomenon of sexual assaults on children has intensified significantly.

"These are the youngest and most vulnerable victims in society," it is claimed. "Live streaming platforms from home allow children to be exploited in front of a camera and videos of the acts to be broadcast worldwide, without leaving traces."

On the other side of the screen, cyber investigation specialists recognize the high demand among consumers for the most horrific videos, including sadistic abuse of children. In conversation with Israel Hayom, Dr. Silberg emphasizes the extreme difficulty in tracking members of such organizations, as most activity occurs on the dark web.

"I had hoped that in Israel there would be an understanding that this is an international phenomenon and that there would be cooperation between Israeli authorities and other countries," she said, but in practice, "when a complaint arrives and a case is opened in Israel – the police did not conduct the investigation properly. The investigators treated each case as if it were isolated. If you separate each case and don't look at the overall picture, you don't ask where all the dots lead. And perhaps they did their best, and the attackers were simply more sophisticated."

Dissociation

"I don't want to go to school, I don't want to!" Ayala (pseudonym) says, crying. "I never want to again. Ever. I don't want to! No! No! At school, the teachers are scary. I don't want them to take me from school. I don't want to go to that class anymore."

Ayala's words blend with tears. In these very moments, she is pulled backward with the memory attack. Although chronologically she is 25 years old, right now she is 9, and nothing can convince her that the danger has passed. Even when her partner reminds her, "You know you're grown up now?", trying to bring her back to the present, she remains terrified. Trembling deep in the past.

Like many victims we met, Ayala also struggles with dissociation challenges. This is a survival disconnection mechanism that protects the child's psyche during abuse, which will be explained later. Ayala grew up in a religious settlement in a family with many children. "In many community settlements, children wander around alone," she said. After years of sharp deterioration in her mental state, including severe anxiety attacks, self-harm, suicidal thoughts, severe suicide attempts, and ongoing suffering – she developed the clear internal knowledge that she had been raped.

The memories began surfacing in severe flashbacks in which, to this day, she re-experiences the abuse incidents she endured. This too is a known phenomenon that repeats itself in some cases we encountered.

Professor Daniel Brom, a clinical psychologist and the manager and founder of "Metiv," the Israel Center for Psychotrauma in Jerusalem, listened to a recording in which Ayala is heard during a memory attack, describing how they take her from school to a frightening place, where they beat her, tie her up, and lead her to a place where things happen that cause her pain.

"She talks about rabbis who abuse her and control her with statements about having a direct connection with God," Professor Brom wrote. "The form of conversation is familiar to me as a conversation with a woman with dissociative identity disorder. I have seen such phenomena in the clinic quite frequently. Since 1990, I have repeatedly met children and adults who tell of organized abuse by men who not only sexually abuse, but also film their acts."

"Silence, conceal, erase, move"

"Some abuse occurred in a building and some in the forest," Ayala continues, "some in a cemetery and some in a synagogue, in all kinds of unusual places. In the building, you go downstairs and reach a very messy room with many tools, paint cans, and many boards. In the middle of the room is a bed, more like a wooden table. It seems there are more rooms there, because there are incidents where I clearly remember being in one room and hearing a child being abused in another room, and then I know what they'll do to me.

"I hear children screaming, crying. It's always a dark place. There are between six and nine men there. They tie me to the bed by my hands and feet, stand in a circle, mutter prayers or blessings, and there's the rabbi who always leads the situation and tells everyone what to do, and everyone listens to him. There's a ceremony, and each one of them rapes me.

"Sometimes the great rabbi arrives, and then he leads the ceremony. He speaks with God, and God tells him what to do. He puts one hand on my heart, one hand on my genitals, and it hurts when he talks to God. There are times when I scream, and there are situations where I stop because I know they'll hit me in the head. There were cases where I didn't cooperate or cried and knew I deserved punishment. There were various punishments, bizarre things: they put my head in a bucket of water for a long time, beat me with a cable, there's also a ritual bath and purification, where they clean me thoroughly, and then immerse in a water source and explain to me that I need to be pure.

"There was one time they took out a Torah scroll and opened to the binding of Isaac. One of them read, and they simply did what they were reading to me. They tied me up, put the knife to my neck, and God said to lower the knife. Then there was rape.

"There was an event in the cemetery, and I saw a place with stones that had many words written on them, and then they told me to enter a hole, and they covered me with sand. It's not clear to me how I remained alive."

Noya was sexually abused by educational figures who cared for her in early childhood. These people, she says, invited additional men to the setting who participated in ritual abuse. The abusers acted with severe violence and used extreme and strong sensory stimuli, which helped her consciousness to split.

"I always had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder," she says. "I was hospitalized, had nightmares, and eating disorders. I also had flashbacks of small fragments of moments from the abuse, but I didn't understand their meaning. In adolescence, dissociative attacks began that looked like epileptic seizures. When I would return home beaten and bruised from abuse, for example, with a head injury or blood from my lips, I said I had a seizure on the stairs.

No one asked too many questions, and at an older age, when the abuse ended, Noya consciously decided to forget. "I told myself nothing happened to me. I had a mantra that I repeated continuously: 'silence, conceal, erase, move, disguise, turn off, conceal, throw away, disconnect, forget.' And I really did forget, for several years."

During those years, Noya fulfilled dreams and established her life–until the difficult memories began to bombard her consciousness. Over the years, and later also in therapy, "figures" that were created during the abuse began to surface, figures that held the difficult memories in her place.

"When there is such massive and extreme abuse, the symptoms are most severe, especially dissociation," says Silvia, a therapist from central Israel who treats victims of complex post-traumatic stress disorder due to prolonged childhood abuse. "This is a defense mechanism of the psyche that is expressed in disconnection at different levels. It can be disconnection from body sensations, from emotion, from thoughts, and from memories. Dissociation allows the victim to get up the next morning and conduct life as usual – go to school, play with friends, learn, and build her personality despite the massive threat she is under. The mechanism is activated during the abuse as a response to an existential threat or unbearable pain, or as a result of the use of consciousness-altering substances by the abusers."

Dr. Sagit Blumrosen-Sela, a clinical psychologist specializing in trauma therapy for sexual abuse, dissociative identity disorder, and autism, recognizes in her clinical cases dissociative disconnections and patients coping with dissociative identity disorder (DID). "Today we're discovering that dissociative identity disorder is more common than previously thought. Many of those affected are not diagnosed – either they hide it, or they don't acknowledge it to themselves. Many of them are hospitalized and receive incorrect diagnoses. Many psychiatrists are not familiar enough with the phenomenon, and it's important they understand that these can be patients who lead normative lives, work, study, raise children. There are real gaps between normative functioning and the abysses that aren't expressed in the outside world."

According to her, "This is a mechanism created as a defensive response to intense physical or emotional pain, when there is no possibility or it's dangerous to fight or flee, and parts of the experience are extracted from the accessible stream of consciousness. When the abuse is repetitive, a system of identities may be formed that carries the traumas, while disconnecting the memories and feelings associated with them from normal consciousness."

Based on testimonies from around the world over the years, there are situations where abusers are aware of the possibility of producing such a disorder in young children. "One patient underwent repeated sadistic attacks, with the abusers intending to cause a split in consciousness, so she wouldn't remember and wouldn't tell. When she was an adult, she even met one of the attackers in a mall and didn't recognize him," Dr. Blumrosen-Sela said.

As if evil itself has intuition

"There's an atmosphere of excitement, as if we're performing the most sacred and elevated act in the world," Nurit says. "I was very young. In the images, people and verses appeared... I have scars on my genitals. They injured and damaged them. It involved tremendous cruelty, abuse, humiliation, control, and ownership, all disguised as religion and elevated spiritual work. It's appropriating God to serve urges. This remains central to my traumas. While such specific events may happen once, the abuse itself becomes a way of life... creating enormous internal destruction. So yes, the damage and implications are terrible."

Through his extensive experience, Boaz has encountered dozens of cult survivors harmed in ceremonies, but also many patients harmed through home-based ceremonies, "typically by fathers or uncles who, chronically over the years, employed ceremonies they invented, incorporating religious texts and content."

According to him, "This represents consciousness control. The child is forced into a tailored role. If told, for example, they came to repair the world and must therefore suffer, or that suffering must intensify beyond what they've already learned to survive, because they are the chosen victim. The child is told that if not they, another family child would be chosen for sacrifice.

"Ceremonies include invented prayers, mutterings, and songs with religious texts. I believe that through these mantras and mutterings, not only does the victim dissociate, but the abuser creates dissociation for himself. Immediately afterward, he can attend synagogue and blow the shofar. There are cases of institutionalized organizations worldwide where techniques for creating dissociation in children follow consistent patterns.

"I think the abusers I encountered through my patients were diabolically sophisticated, but in my opinion, they didn't learn these methods from some manual—they developed them through intuition. It's as if evil itself has intuition. In one case, a patient underwent massive abuse that caused physical injury, extreme humiliation, and contempt. Even today, decades later, she believes she's a creature from another world. Though intellectually she understands this isn't true, emotionally she feels destined for this role.

"Consider how easy it is to tell a child they were born from the power of impurity and therefore must suffer. These mantras penetrate deeply, especially when a child is abused and brought to the brink of death—certainly psychological death, but in several cases I encountered, part of the abuse involved nearly killing the victim before allowing them to survive. In such states, consciousness transforms, and implanted beliefs become part of one's very essence, because what creates a stronger bond than nearly dying—and then surviving?"

"Organized, planned ceremony"

As we prepare to part, Eden's mother shows me a photograph of her daughter with a broad smile and laughing eyes. "Look what a child I lost," she says painfully. "Write for her sake."

"When Eden was 25, she began remembering childhood rape," Corinne, her mother, said. "It was highly unusual. She described it as a group rape conducted like a theatrical performance where everyone played an assigned role. When flashbacks occurred, memories surfaced, and she revealed shocking details. Men from the settlement acting together, conducting group rape with extreme violence, drugs, and nudity. Somehow, afterward, she returned home clean and intact—it's unclear how. She filed a police complaint that was subsequently closed. She completely broke down from the experience."

According to her mother, Eden began suffering severe anxiety attacks and reached states classified as psychotic, though she was primarily expressing extreme terror while convinced the main perpetrator would murder her. "She genuinely felt she was being stalked. There's an entire community here concealing things, and apparently, many people have something to hide, while others either close their eyes or are too weak to act. Eden spoke about six men participating in the rape—such things require secrecy. Fighting an entire community is incredibly difficult. And some people simply cannot bring themselves to believe it."

Many women we interviewed described ceremonies involving supposed reenactments of biblical stories. The "binding of Isaac" reenactment, for example, appears in five separate testimonies.

Nurit describes: "They tied me up, creating an imitation of the 'binding of Isaac,' though it wasn't exactly the same because I'm female. They took a specific symbol, used it as they wanted, and connected it to a form of circumcision... Nothing in Jewish law requires performing the binding of Isaac this way. Nevertheless, I sensed they were reading texts, reciting passages, conducting a deliberately organized, planned ceremony with a specific process. It serves to legitimize evil."

Arnon, a senior clinical psychologist who guides trauma therapists, encountered ritual abuse indicators four decades ago and several clear cases in recent years, leading him to "fear this represents some kind of network."

According to him, "These individuals distort Kabbalistic sources through misinterpretation. I believe they're psychopaths using Kabbalah to objectify and exploit victims. When 'Kabbalistic' forces combine with sexual exploitation desires, that creates an explosive situation. Anyone truly God-fearing should carefully avoid this movement, as they would be fired.

"I'm certain similar practices exist in secular contexts. Spiritual frameworks can be misappropriated to justify deviations from norms while demanding blind faith. They deliberately choose synagogues, confronting our most sacred spaces. They perform these acts wearing holy garments, pronouncing divine names, exploiting the concept that certain individuals are permitted—even commanded—to behave contrary to normal expectations.

"But the notion that prohibitions don't apply to specific individuals is completely foreign to authentic religious tradition. What makes this dangerous is that eventually they believe their own justifications when performing these horrific rituals you've heard described. These are the most shocking accounts I've encountered in my entire life, and I fear they genuinely believe they're drawing closer to God through these means."

To rob faith

"For survival, children often bond with their attackers out of necessity," Boaz said. "It resembles Stockholm syndrome. They believe their abuser's claim that they serve some cosmic purpose. Part of the catastrophic healing process comes when, after 30 years, a person suddenly realizes, 'What? I never had a special role? It was simply evil?' This creates an enormous, potentially suicidal break because it collapses their entire worldview. Their inner faith is completely stolen.

"At school, they pray and discuss divine providence—how everything has a purpose and God manages the world—but He wasn't there for them. This represents profound mind control, requiring many years of therapy to address this pain. Therefore, any testimony you hear represents merely a fraction of what actually occurred. The spiritual injury is utterly unbearable. Just as sexual abuse damages trust in people, spiritual injury robs a child of faith. In my professional assessment, faith serves a fundamental function in the human soul—and whoever has had that faith stolen will carry that wound forever."

Noga, who reports she was in a "cult" that conducted organized ritual child abuse until she reached late childhood, explains that "there exists some agreement with the gods. The entire theory revolves around 'correction.' The phrase 'the great correction' recurs constantly. To achieve the great correction, one must suffer, primarily because suffering purifies and advances redemption...

"The gods I remember are Baal Peor and Ashtoreth. I vaguely recall statues. I remember them saying 'our lord Peor and our lady Ashtoreth.' What makes this truly disturbing is that these are observant Jews who meticulously follow Jewish commandments, minor and major alike, not as a performance. They genuinely adhere to Torah commandments according to Orthodox tradition. They express contempt for Reform Jews while simultaneously, in a parallel existence, practicing literal idol worship.

"I had a connection to something I can't quite explain. I possessed both strong faith and an innocent connection to God, which they exploited. For a child who is spiritually open and connected, it's easy to implant messages and create twisted distortions."

Q: What messages?

"Messages stemming from deliberate confusion between fundamental values, between heaven and earth, darkness and light, evil and good. They claim to reach the root of existence through the most defiled, lowest places, supposedly elevating them to holiness, and through this concept they create numerous distortions. They essentially blur boundaries between good and evil, between sexuality and love, and family. Whatever can be mixed and intermingled, they do it. Their ceremonies included cross-gender dressing, like transvestites, extremely promiscuous sexuality involving men with children, men with women, and even within family units."

"Both religious and national obligation"

Throughout our investigation, we encountered difficult, horrifying, and incomprehensible descriptions. How is it possible that such horrific crimes against children continue for years right under everyone's noses, particularly law enforcement agencies?

"Even we as treatment professionals have an existential need for denial," Dr. Gur said. "When you hear that a woman who collaborated with abusers washed the abused child to remove evidence of the abuse, your entire soul screams—this cannot be real.

"Just as the child dissociates, knowing that remembering what happened would make continued existence impossible, we as witnesses must make a choice, consciously or unconsciously, whether we're willing to believe such horrifying things occur. It undermines our very personal existence, creating a command of silence that operates not just externally, but at a deeply internal level."

"In religious terms, these represent the most serious offenses possible. Exposing this phenomenon is crucial, particularly apprehending perpetrators and bringing them to justice. Beyond the physical and sexual harm, this involves profound spiritual abuse," explained a religious figure familiar with victim accounts who is deeply troubled by the information he's encountered in recent years.

"It's essential to understand—these constitute the most serious offenses possible within Judaism," he continued. "From a religious perspective, this is desecration of God's name. Many ritual victims are delivered to these ceremonies by family members who also sexually abuse them, committing the sin of incest. If perpetrators have religious motivation, they're engaging in idolatry. Therefore, exposing this phenomenon and uncovering the truth represents both a religious and national obligation, and anyone valuing religion should demand a thorough investigation."

Alongside the defensive doubting mechanism that naturally arises when confronting the terror of death embedded in victims' bones, understanding the crushing rocks of silencing, and the satanic chains of threats that bound victims, denying without investigation becomes a privilege we cannot allow ourselves.

The alleged crimes described in testimonies collected by Israel Hayom never reached courtroom discussion or a thorough investigation. Though these serious offenses may lack specific legal formulation, existing legal frameworks—including human trafficking and rape statutes—obligate law enforcement authorities to investigate complaints about monstrous evil that defies description.

Responses

Israel Police stated: "Every complaint received undergoes thorough and professional examination, with investigators working as necessary to identify possible connections between similar cases, according to findings arising during investigation. The subject mentioned in your inquiry is familiar to police and under examination; naturally, at this stage we cannot elaborate further."

Dr. Naama Goldberg, CEO of "Not Standing By – Assisting Women in the Prostitution Circle," stated: "Unfortunately, I've been hearing similar testimonies for many years describing identical patterns of abuse. Sometimes they're so shocking that doubts arise regarding credibility. However, since these reports consistently repeat across victims who don't necessarily know each other and come from different regions of the country, they appear well-founded.

"Moreover, from my professional experience working with crime victims, those who've approached me over the years display behavioral patterns consistent with profiles of people sadistically abused in childhood.

"The dissociative elements, time gaps before disclosure became possible, and other factors confirm complainants' exposure to such harm at early ages. This represents a terrible story that must be heard loudly and clearly, and thoroughly examined by authorities."

Orit Sulitzeanu, CEO of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, stated: "In recent years, our Association has received inquiries regarding ritual sexual abuse. These violations typically occur in closed communities under the pretext of religious ceremony. Undoubtedly, the conspiracy of silence within religious society often prevents exposure of severe exploitation and abuse cases, making it tremendously important to bring these violations to light, giving words to what's happening and allowing victims to release their secrets."

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condemned the alleged sexual assault of women in Manipur state as "shameful" and promised tough action, his first comments on ethnic clashes in the remote northeast which have killed at least 125 people.

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The clashes began in early May and much of the violence was put down by the middle of that month.

However, sporadic violence and killings resumed soon afterward and the state of 3.2 million people, which shares a border with Myanmar, has remained tense since. Hundreds have been injured and more than 40,000 have fled their homes.

Video: Reuters/India PM Modi calls alleged Manipur sexual assault 'shameful'

The violence began on May 3 after a court ordered the state government to consider extending special economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education enjoyed by the tribal Kuki people to the majority Meitei population as well.

Modi, who had not made any public remarks about the trouble in a state ruled by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), spoke a day after videos showing women being molested in Manipur surfaced and sparked national outrage.

The videos on social media purport to show two women paraded naked and assaulted on a street before what townspeople on the videos say was a gang rape.

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Israel Prison Service Commissioner Katy Perry on Tuesday issued instructions to launch proceedings to dismiss Maj. Rani Basha, who was the prison intelligence officer at the Gilboa Prison at the time when female IDF soldiers serving as guards were allegedly pimped out to Palestinian security prisoners.

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Earlier Tuesday, the State Prosecutor Amit Issman announced that an investigation into the scandal was being reopened.

"The commissioner's decision was made in light of the decision to reopen the investigation, among other reasons because of the guards' testimony on the 'Uvda' news program and Liran Levy's media reports," the Israel Prison Service said.

"The IPS commissioners has updated Public Security Minister Omer Barlev's about her decision and welcomes the State Attorney's Office's decision to reopen the investigation," the IPS statement continued.

Basha's attorney, Eyal Besserglick, said in response to begin proceedings to dismiss his client that "This is nothing less than a scandal. Even before talking to the officer, and without telling him anything, they have already decided to dismiss him without any evidence or claims having been presented to him.

"Managing things through the media rather than talking directly to the official is improper, inappropriate, and we will take legal action to clear his name," Besserglick said.

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ZAKA founder and chairman Yehuda Meshi-Zahav visited the headquarters of the Israel Police's Lahav 433 Major Crimes Unit on Monday to speak on his own behalf in the investigation recently launched into allegations that he has committed multiple sex crimes against Haredi children and women.

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Meshi-Zahav arrived a day after the Israel Police made a formal announcement that an investigation had been opened into the allegations against him. A police officer met with him at the gate and informed him that the visit was irregular, as he had not yet been summoned to provide testimony, after which Meshi-Zahav left.

As of Monday, none of the alleged victims had filed official complaints with the police. The Israel Police have reached out to a few of the alleged victims, but most refused to come forward.

One of Meshi-Zahav's close associates said Monday that "he can't stand what the media is doing to him anymore."

"He denies the allegations against him in the media and feels a strong desire to know what is suspected of and give his version," the associate said.

Meshi-Zahav's attorney, Ephraim Dimari, said, "My client, believing in his innocence, took the unusual step and presented himself for questioning at Lahav 433. My client has nothing to hide, everything is malicious rumors."

Meanwhile, Zviki Fleishman and Shana Aharonson from the organization Magen, which provides mental health support to members of the Haredi community, who contributed to the Haaretz expose about Meshi-Zahav's alleged acts, also arrived at the Lahav 433 headquarters on Monday, where they handed over material regarding the alleged crimes, as well as the contact details of a few of the people who spoke to journalists and others who contacted Magen in the last few days since the story broke.

As the investigation progresses, a number of senior ZAKA officials and Haredi public officials are expected to be summoned to give evidence as the police attempt to determine whether or not they knew about the alleged acts and failed to report them.

Since the expose ran, more men and women have spoken to the media, claiming to have been sexually assaulted by Meshi-Zahav, and alleging that he had threatened them to keep them from disclosing what had happened.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the affair in an interview with Army Radio on Monday and said he "hoped it isn't true."

"Sexual molestation of women and children is something that should brought to justice," he said.

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The Israel Police on Friday announced it would be launching an investigation into sexual assault allegations made against Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, co-founder and chairman of the ZAKA volunteer emergency response organization. Meshi-Zahav has denied any wrongdoing.

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The police said the investigation will be handled by the Lahav 433 Major Crimes Unit.

Meshi-Zahav, who was recently nominated for the Israel Prize over his activities as ZAKA's chief, announced he would be stepping down as head of the emergency response organization and relinquishing the prestigious award.

Some of the alleged victims cited in the report are considering filing official police complaints, although investigators were expected to question them regardless in the coming days.

According to a report in Haaretz daily, Meshi-Zahav exploited his status, power, money, and even the organization he heads to commit sexual crimes against both men and women, some of whom were minors at the time of the alleged events. The report also said Meshi-Zahav "paid" his alleged victims with money and other gifts – and also with prostitutes for sexual trysts that he would join. The report also alleged that one of Meshi-Zahav's female family members occasionally partook in these encounters.

Meshi-Zahav has denied the allegations as "baseless," but nonetheless, as stated, resigned from ZAKA and rescinded his recently received Israel Prize's lifetime achievement award.

Founded in 1989, ZAKA is one of Israel's most recognizable emergency response groups and has responded to various disasters in other countries.

In a letter addressed to ZAKA volunteers, Meshi-Zahav said that "these stories are unfounded, gossip and the settling of scores against me."

He said he was temporarily stepping down from his post because of concern over the "damage that may be caused as a result to this important organization."

While the scandal has sent shockwaves across social media, the Haredi world, along with most Haredi media outlets, has remained silent on the matter.

Despite the fact that Meshi-Zahav is a particularly prominent Haredi figure, all main Haredi news outlets, aside from the relatively small "Actualic," ignored the story for 24 hours until he gave up the Israel Prize and suspended himself from ZAKA.

In several Haredi WhatsApp forums, claims were made that certain elements, including ZAKA competitors, are trying to hurt Meshi-Zahav. Others focused on the identity of the journalists who wrote the story. "Somehow, a few dozen years later, everyone suddenly remembers to complain at the same time," one person said. "So [Meshi-Zahav] lost the [Israel Prize], and this case will likely be closed by the police due to a lack of evidence, but we as human beings – won't we have lost for participating in this boycott and social shaming?" another asked. "Aren't we behaving as if in Sodom, sealing fates without a trial?" asked another person.

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Co-founder and chairman of the ZAKA volunteer emergency response organization, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, was accused Thursday of sexual assault, rape, and abuse by six people in a report by the Haaretz daily, which said there are likely many more cases.

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The allegations against Meshi-Zahav, who is a prominent figure in the ultra-Orthodox community who earlier this month was awarded the Israel Prize's lifetime achievement award, were made by both men and women, some of whom were minors at the time of the alleged events.

Meshi-Zahav denied the allegations. "The claims are baseless; I don't know how I'll be able to rehabilitate my good name in light of the irrevocable damage caused to me."

According to the Haaretz report, Meshi-Zahav "paid" his alleged victims with money and other gifts – and also with prostitutes for sexual trysts that he would join. The report also alleged that one of Meshi-Zahav's female family members occasionally partook in these encounters.

Some of the young women allegedly exploited by Meshi-Zahav, according to the report, called him a "righteous person" and testified that he supported them financially. They also, however, detailed sexual acts he performed on them, including acts of degradation.

Meshi-Zahav took advantage of his status, power, money, and even the organization he heads to commit sexual assault, the Haaretz report said.

One alleged victim said he forcibly undressed her and raped her after offering financial aid. The woman said that while Meshi-Zahav forced himself on her, he threatened, "If you talk, a ZAKA jeep will run you over."

One of Meshi-Zahav's alleged male victims claimed the Zaka chairman sexually molested him at the synagogue where they prayed together, when he was only five years old.

Another said Meshi-Zahav repeatedly abused him when he was a teen, only realizing years later he was his "escort, a prostitute in the full sense of the word," he told Haaretz.

The report said several other women have testified that he masturbated in front of them and touched them sexually.

Of the six allegations reported, the earliest is from 1983, and the latest from 2011. At least one case reached police, but was closed in 2014 due to a lack of evidence.

A source who spoke to Israel Hayom confirmed the general veracity of the Haaretz report, without confirming any of the allegations specifically. The source said many residents of several ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem knew of Meshi-Zahav's actions but did not say anything or report him to authorities.

"It's a shame that the acts attributed to Meshi-Zahav will now stain the entire Haredi community, especially seeing as how he hasn't belonged to it for many years now," the source told Israel Hayom.

The source also told Israel Hayom that after it was announced that Meshi-Zahav had won the Israel Prize's lifetime achievement award, he asked a prominent figure in the Haredi community how to deal with the problematic situation. The prominent figure, according to the source, told him: "The fact that you chose him to [light the torch] on Independence Day is your problem; [in the Haredi community] he doesn't count."

In his denial of the allegations, Meshi-Zahav added: "My request to receive elementary information and basic details was rejected. I asked to meet, and was rejected. I demanded to respond to the [Haaretz] report, which is essentially a 'targeted assassination,' within two hours.

"I will say generally that it appears Haaretz has fallen prey to elements with commercial and economic interests [who wish] to cause me harm. They are joined by extremist elements from the Haredi world, who are affronted by my unique path [in that world]. These elements have launched a campaign of vengeance against me, among other reasons because my children enlisted in the IDF, two of them in combat units, because after lighting the Independence Day torch I said, 'To the glory of the State of Israel,' and now, after the announcement that I won the Israel Prize.

"Added to this is my occasional criticism about some of the more extremist leaders in the Haredi sector. Ever since it was announced I would receive the Israel Prize, I have been targeted with various threats via telephone. Following the death of my parents, I received phone calls expressing joy at their passing. I was spit on in the street. I received other threats, too, some of which I sent to Haaretz as well. To my sorrow, this is part of the price I pay for the path that I chose."

Meshi-Zahav was a vocal critic of some of the ultra-Orthodox leadership during the coronavirus pandemic, as some prominent community figures downplayed the virus.

Founded in 1989, ZAKA is one of Israel's most recognizable emergency response groups and has responded to various disasters in other countries.

In addition to providing emergency response services and assisting in search and rescue operations, ZAKA also helps in the grim task of finding and identifying body parts following terror attacks, air crashes and other disasters.

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The suspects are purported to have committed the alleged rapes in their homes and in local bomb shelters, sometimes committing gang rape.

Some of the incidents were recorded, videos of which were subsequently passed between the suspects.

The police said in a statement to parents: "Get involved in your children's lives."

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The 19-year-old was also fined $150. She is expected to return to the UK later on Tuesday or Wednesday.

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"I have decided to give her a second chance," Judge Michalis Papathanasiou said, citing her age, psychological state, and dependency on antidepressants.

Last week, the teen was found guilty of having "willfully indulged in public mischief" by filing the false rape claim while on holiday in Ayia Napa in July.

The woman maintains she was a victim in the case. Her lawyer, Michael Polak, accused Cypriot authorities of a litany of rights failings and said that they would appeal the actual conviction in Cyprus' supreme court, stating that they will take the case to the European Court of Justice or the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

British and Cypriot media outlets reported Monday that the woman will receive a presidential pardon if she is sentenced to prison.

Britain's Foreign Office has said it is "seriously concerned" about whether the woman received a fair trial, and the case has been taken up by rape survivors and rights groups, including in Israel.

Over 50 Israelis have flown to Cyprus to stand by the British woman.

"The minimum we can do is to be there to offer support, to show her that we believe her," Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel, told The Guardian, adding that the protest was partly out of disgust that the "boys returned to Israel as heroes."

They demonstrated outside the Cypriot courthouse alongside local activists, shouting "Cyprus justice, shame on you," "stop blaming the victim" and "you are not alone," Sky News reported. Some held placards with the slogans "we believe you" and "don't be afraid."

The woman's mother says her daughter is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and hallucinations due to the trauma she has suffered from the case. That account was backed up by the report of a psychologist who evaluated the woman after the alleged rape and said her state of mind when she recanted the accusation was not properly taken into consideration during her trial.

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