Secretive ‘modesty court’ warns of sexual assault in Jerusalem yeshiva

An anonymous group has sent a letter warning parents of pupils at a Jerusalem ultra-Orthodox religious academy that a senior member of staff is guilty of “serious modesty issues” — a euphemism for sexual assaults.

The letter, which included the signatures of three prominent rabbis from the ultra-Orthodox Sephardic community, was circulated in recent days by the self-styled “modesty court,” an unofficial, secretive group of activists.

Hadashot TV news on Monday published a redacted portion of the letter that leveled allegations against the rabbi, without identifying him or the religious school, known as a yeshiva.

The letter warned parents that “those who lead Yeshiva [redacted] are shockingly lacking in modesty issues. Therefore, we hereby notify here that it is prohibited for the yeshiva to continue to exist as long as the abovementioned [redacted] family continues to be in the yeshiva.”

The accused rabbi told Hadashot in a response that the allegations were “a plot.”

“Other rabbis have checked the claims and confirmed that they do not exist,” he said. “This is persecution by extremist elements within the ultra-Orthodox world.”

The alleged abuser was mentioned in the letter only as an acronym because the allegations have not been ascertained by any recognized body, which is also why a complaint has not been filed with police, the report said.

Among those who put their signatures to the letter was Rabbi Zion Boaron, a former judge on a rabbinic court and a senior figure in the Sephardic ultra-Orthodox community.

Boaron told Hadashot that he had also issued his own independent ruling on the matter, apparently different to the one sent in the letter, but refused to provide any further information.