Rabbi Mordechai " Moti" Elon Won't Appeal Sex Abuse Conviction
By Shmarya Rosenberg
"The long legal process has exacted a heavy toll on the family and in line with their wishes it was decided to put the incident behind them and return to normal life. Rabbis who were called in on the matter accepted the family's wishes." Rabbi Mordechai “Moti” Elon has decided not to appeal his recent conviction on two counts of performing indecent sexual acts on a minor, Ynet reported. Elon was sentenced to 6 months of community service with no prison time, sparking outrage. Elon himself shrugged off the sentence. "I've been doing community service for 40 years, and I would love to do until I'm 120,” Elon reportedly said then. He was also sentenced to 15 months probation and was ordered to pay NIS 10,000 ($2,844) in compensation. Prosecutors had asked for an 8– to 18-month prison sentence. Elon’s supporters openly flaunted the verdict. Rabbi Haim Druckman, the most senior Zionist Orthodox rabbinic leader worldwide and an Israel Prize winner, attacked the victim and the courts. He also asked Elon to continue teaching at Druckman’s yeshiva – even though the law prohibits Elon from doing so. Despite that law, Elon continues to teach there. Elon is the scion of a very prominent and powerful Zionist Orthodox family. His father was a former judge on Israel’s High Court of Justice and Elon himself is a former rosh yeshiva (dean) at the Zionist Orthodox flagship yeshiva Yeshivat HaKotel. Elon reportedly decided not to appeal after discussing the issue with his family. Elon’s attorney Asher Ohayon said Elon’s decision had nothing to do with his chance of winning an appeal. "The long legal process has exacted a heavy toll on the family and in line with their wishes it was decided to put the incident behind them and return to normal life. Rabbis who were called in on the matter accepted the family's wishes,” Ohayon reportedly said. Ohayon also claimed that an unnamed leading jurist had found major technical issues in Elon's trial. Elon’s sentence came a day after new details were released about his case that showed Elon had abused another victim about a decade ago. A social worker publicly identified only as R.M. testified that she watched Elon kiss and hug a boy in his car about a decade ago. Additionally, rabbis who had previously investigated Elon for the non-governmental Takana Forum, which handles cases of sexual abuse and impropriety in the Zionist Orthodox community, had previously forced Elon to give up his position as rosh yeshiva at Yeshivat HaKotel over abuse allegations. At least one of those rabbis later said that what Elon was charged with by the courts and ultimately convicted of was far milder than some of the allegations they had heard about him and believed to be true based on the evidence they saw and heard
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